Path of Heroes
by MateiFire
Summary: First Fanfic! With Raimon's victory of the Holy Road, another school's story begins. Inspired by Raimon's rise to the championship, this ragtag team decides to make their own path to the top. Main Cast OC.
1. Preface

**Preface:**

Hey everyone! This is my first Fanfic and I might be a bit inexperienced, but I hope to improve along the way. If you can, it would be great if you could review and possibly give me any feedback you can, it would really help, thank you!

As for this story, it is an Inazuma Eleven Fanfic taking place as Raimon (GO) wins Holy Road. However, the main cast will be a team of OC's I've created after years of doodling stick figures that would become actual drawings. This "chapter" is here to introduce you to some of these characters with some drawings I've made in order to give a kind of image I had in mind while writing.

**Setting and Story Style**

First off, this is an Inazuma Eleven GO Fanfic taking place in a school known as Hikari Jr. High (Hikari meaning light) and is basically the story of another school's soccer club slowly getting on its feet watching Raimon's defeat of Fifth Sector. It takes place from right before the match with Seidouzan and Dragonlink to before Tenma to where Chrono Stone begins.

As for the style, I'm trying a double narrative, where the two main characters take turns narrating between chapters, so there might be some overlap in the beginning of some chapters with some of the different POV's. I'm on the fence about possibly putting the POV's of other characters, so I'll leave that to you guys whether or not you want the story to be told from their eyes. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to the team!

**The Characters:**

Time to introduce all the characters. Keeping with how Inazuma Eleven usually does things, I'm putting the names in last name then first name order and many of the names have to do with the character (Ex: Endou Mamoru-mamoru meaning protect since he's the goalie).

*Note-The translations for the names came from Google Translate so if they're incorrect, sorry.

**Note-All the pictures are in black and white but I'll try to explain the colors more during the chapter and I'll probably add pictures with color in the future.

To reach links find my DeviantArt-link on my bio-lveloso99

First, the two narrators:

Hyōshōdai Taiso-MF and Captain of the Team

A 2nd year who is a perfectionist. He can be very type A and his personality comes from the pressure he feels from his family. Many people from his family, including his parents, have been Olympic Gold medalists or professional sports players who have also exceled academically as well, so the expectations are really high. He works hard at all that he does and takes charge of the soccer club as soon as he can. He is motivated to lift this team up as he watches Raimon fix Fifth Sector's corrupt ways. He is also a gymnast on the side, which he plans to perfect to join the Olympic team in the future. He also incorporates his gymnast skills into his hissatsu wazas. He is jealous of his older sister, Archeri, who seems to always be just ahead of him in almost every aspect from academics to sports. He is neighbors and best friends with the other narrator, "Tai" who is a complete opposite of him.

Name: Hysohodai means Podium because of his dreams to be an Olympic gold medalist and Taiso means gymnastics which is the other sport he trains at

Number: #9

Link to Drawing of Him:

art/Taiso-Hyoshodai-458407482

Senzai Taidana "Tai"-DF

Taiso's best friend since they first met on the first day of elementary school where they argued who would get the nickname "Tai." Needless to say, he won. However, these two best friends, and neighbors, are complete polar opposites, where Taiso is hard working and aiming for perfection where Tai is lazy and just makes it by. Their friendship is strengthened by their shared jealousy of an older sibling who always outshines them. On the field, he doesn't try to defend unless he feels it's perfectly necessary. He serves to keep Taiso from getting overstressed while Taiso makes sure he actually does his work and doesn't fail all his classes. He actually is gifted at learning very quickly and can actually do well if he wasn't so lazy. In fact, when motivated, he can quickly analyze an opponent's formation and play style and formulate a strategy to counter it. However, that's just too much work for him. His personality is laid back and very sarcastic at times. While Taiso can be optimistic about the future, Tai sees himself as a "realist" as he puts it, and thinks more negatively, unlike the whole "if you believe in yourself, you can do it" mentality. Tai has a small crush on his best friend's sister, Archeri, but does his best to not show it because he feels it would be extremely weird if Taiso found out. Lastly, Tai will have a habit of breaking the fourth wall due to feeling bound by story logic and will sometimes make things a bit confusing.

Name:Senzai Tekina on Google Translate was the response for potential so I took the first half to show he has potential if he only wasn't so lazy, which brings us to his first name: Taiso-meaning lazy

Number: #5

Link to Drawing of Him:

art/Taidana-Senzai-458406213

Bonus Picture: art/Tai-Yawning-458406629

Note**-The bonus picture was a quick rough draft and it shows how I came up with their designs-I drew stick figures with hair which eventually became the cast.

Now the rest of the cast

Morimaru Shizen-GK/FW

A 2nd year who as described by Tai as a "pretty cool guy, 'nuff said." He is usually calm and collected unless someone…litters. He is very protective of the environment and all his hissatsu reflect either wild animals or the power of nature as a whole. He practices yoga and helps calm down other members of the team by getting them involved. He plays goalkeeper since he is the only one who has any skill at it and because everyone else refuses to do it. However, if someone takes his place, he is an amazing striker who tears up the field which makes people doubt his "one with nature" personality.

Name: Mori-means wood and Maru is a common ending for boys names and Shizen means nature

Number: #1

Link to Picture of Him:

art/Shizen-Morimaru-458403516

Hyōshōdai Archeri-FW

Taiso's older sister and the only girl in the starting eleven. A previous SEED from the now fallen Fifth Sector, she makes a 180 personality change in the first few chapters from a dark woman watching over the team to an always happy older sister who supports the team by scoring their goals as the team's ace striker. She's a tomboy on the field, playing even rougher than some of the others but when on off the pitch she acts just like most girls her age. At only a year above Taiso, she's a 3rd year. As a Hyōshōdai, she also deals with the expectance of perfection from her family and delivers with more ease than her younger brother. Like Taiso, she also does another sport, her choice being archery and her hissatsu show her expert marksmanship. As the only girl, she ignores the guys who try to ask her out and proves she can outplay the best of them.

Name: As Taiso's older sister, she shares the name Hyōshōdai, meaning podium, and her first represents her other sport, archery. Archery=Archeri

Number: #10

Link to Picture of Her:

art/Archeri-Hyoshodai-458407683

Safu Shio-DF

1st year Shio is the short guy (Shinsuke, Kogure, Shorin) of the team. He loves fishing with his father and hopes to take over the business someday. His personality is very bright and perky to the point where it can sometimes be annoying to some. His hissatsu are all based off the sea like the tides and undersea currents. He is one of the main people who join Shizen with his yoga sessions and has a small rivalry with the big guy of the team, Tetsu. With his hissatsu based off the sea and Tetsu's being based off the mountains, their techniques mirror their sizes. However, they work together well and make the solid defense of the team.

Name: Safu means surfing, although he isn't a surfer and Shio means tide, based off several of his hissatsu

Number: #3

Link to Picture of Him:

art/Shio-Safu-458404392

Kagemaru Chryde-DF/MF

First glance at Chryde gives the impression that he is either a dark unfeeling guy or a depressing emo who dampens the mood on things. In fact, unless you get to really know him, he'll give that exact impression. In reality, behind his dark disposition and low voice, he can be rather friendly. His hissatsu however, don't really help his case of removing the idea of him being a dark soul, since all of them involve either sneaking in the shadows to get past his opponents. He is also a 2nd year.

Name: Kage means shadow and like Shizen Maru is a common ending in boys' names. Lastly, Chryde came from Pac-Man, where Clyde was the only ghost who didn't rhyme with Blinky, Pinky, and Inky. Therefore, a different version of Clyde came in Chryde to show he's a bit different from the others.

Number: #2

Link to a Picture of Him:

art/Chryde-Kagemaru-458404089

Tensai Arashi-MF

Mimikku Yasashi-MF

Cousins Arashi and Yasashi are 2nd year and 1st year respectively. Arashi, as the older of the two, does more of the talking for them while Yasashi usually stays back. Although Arashi likes his younger cousin, he gets annoyed at his constant following of him. Yasashi's people skills aren't that good, but if someone can get him talking, they'll see he's very friendly, but latches on easily. He'll slowly start mimicking someone else's personality all the way to the slightest nuance. As for hissatsu, Arashi uses moves relating to disasters, with a focus on storms, while Yasashi doesn't have any of his own. Instead, he mimics the hissatsu of others and joins in to create a powered up version of the original move.

Names: Tensai means disaster while Arashi means storm symbolizing his hissatsu. As for Yasashi, his first name means friendly, while his last name Mimikku means to mimic.

Number: #6 and #12 respectively

Links to their pictures:

art/Arashi-Tensai-458407019

art/Yasashi-Mimikku-458408106

Yosai Tetsu-DF

Tetsu is one of those "do you even lift, bro" like people. He plans to become an MMA fighter in his older years but now is just working on working out. Before joining the team, all he did was lift weights. In his second year, he joined the soccer club in order to work on his leg muscles. He ended up enjoying it and continued for his last year. As the tallest member of the team, he managed a rivalry with Shio. However, they make a great combination. Tetsu's hissatsu all have to do with land formations like mountains and canyons.

Name: Tetsu means iron and Yosai means fortress, so when you read his name first then last, you get iron fortress.

Number: #4

Link to Picture of Him:

art/Testsu-Yosai-458404618

Chisoku Hayai-MF

Hayai has 2 speeds, normal and really fast. Unfortunately, that pertains to more than just sports. He's either perfectly normal or extremely impatient and is annoying you wondering "is it time" or "are we there yet?" When on the field, he's itching to begin and has a bad habit of jumping the gun before the referee even blows the whistle. His "got to go faster" look on life influences his plays and his hissatsu, that all have to do with going faster than the next guy. Besides his impatience, this 1st year gets along well with the team and does his best to contribute.

Name: Chisoku is one of the ways you can say speed, and Hayai means fast. Both have to do with this guy's need for speed.

Number: #7

Link to Picture of Him:

art/Hayai-Chisoku-458407270

Hanraku Kagaku-FW

Lastly, we have the other forward, Kagaku, self-proclaimed ace and prodigy genius. While he's very flashy with his moves and quick to brag about his skills, both academically and game wise, he does have the track record to prove it. While only a 2nd year, he takes classes all reserved for 3rd years and he is quick to analyze an opposing team's abilities and counteract against them. In all subjects, chemistry is where he truly shines and eventually becomes the source of his inspiration for all his hissatsu. He has a rivalry with Archeri, since he chooses to refuse to let the ace's seat be taken by a girl, but in reality, he knows he doesn't stand a chance. He stands as the "brains" of the team on most occasions, unless someone else needs to step in.

Name: Kagaku means chemistry or chemical while Hanraku means reaction, which relates to his knowledge of chemistry and its effect on his hissatsu.

Number: #11

Link to Picture of Him:

art/Kagaku-Hanraku-458407900

-With that you have all the setting, story style, and main cast of this Fanfic. With that out of the way, the story begins next chapter beginning with Taiso's POV! Thank you for reading and review!


	2. The New Player

**A/N: Hey there! I'm MateiFire and this is my first Fanfic! If you haven't read the Preface, do so know because it introduces the setting and characters of this story. This is my first fic I'm writing so I would appreciate reviews and any feedback you can give me! With that out of the way, here's the disclaimer…**

**DISCLAIMER:**** I don't own Inazuma Eleven, GO, Chrono Stone, or Galaxy**

**Path of Heroes**

**Chapter 1: A New Player**

**Taiso's POV**

So, today's the day. That's the first thing that entered my head as I got out of bed that morning at 6:29 A.M. Once again, I beat the alarm by a minute. I shut my alarm off before going over to the bathroom. Knowing my family, they would all be up in a couple of seconds. I got my toothbrush, put on the toothpaste and began the process of brushing my teeth. As I finished there, I filled up the cup of mouthwash and poured it into my mouth. After swishing it back and forth before spitting it out, I washed my face before looking at myself in the mirror. I saw Hyōshōdai Taiso, aspiring gold medalist and current captain of his school's soccer club. I smiled at my reflection, my golden eyes shining back at me. I brushed my dirty blonde hair to the right until it was into the ponytail I wore during school hours. I went back to my room with a hidden smile on my face as I heard my parents just getting out of bed.

'Beat them to the buzzer again,' I thought to myself, knowing that I'd be ready first this morning. I put on my uniform, starting with my dark blue pants. As I buckled my belt over my pants, I grabbed and put on the rest of my uniform: a white shirt followed by a blue blazer with the yellow emblem of our school on the left shoulder. I folded my cuffs and buttoned them. Then I tightly tied my red tie around the collar of the white inner shirt. I walked over to the kitchen and made myself breakfast: an egg, sunny side up with two pieces of toast. I got down and ate, finishing as my parents got to the table. I put away my plates before my father sat down, ready to get on my way to school.

"Have a great day at school," I heard him call out as I put on my shoes, picked up my bag, and bolt out the door of our apartment. Unlike them, I unfortunately got someone else to wake up before my day officially starts.

I knocked at my neighbor's door and waited until the door opened. A lady with long brown hair already dressed for the day opened the door and smiled at seeing me, "Oh, good morning to you, Taiso. Here to help get my son out of bed?" she said politely.

"Just like every morning," I half joked, because I knew that's what I did every morning. I rushed over to the other room and opened the door. In the corner of the room, lying in bed was my best friend, Senzai Taidana.

"Hey Tai, get up before I have to rip you off your bed," I warned as I walked over to the lump that was my friend.

"Mom, give me 5 more minutes…" he mumbled as he turned away.

"This isn't your mom, it's me, Taiso," I reminded him.

"That's what I meant," he mumbled as he slowly arose from his slumber.

"Get up and get ready, we're already 2 minutes behind schedule!" I yelled at my friend, whose bored eyes finally flickered open.

"All right, man. Calm down, what's your problem?" he yawned with one hand over his mouth as he finally got on his feet.

"You know what my problem is," I growled as I stared at how slow he was taking his time.

"Ohhhhhh, it's that day isn't it," he mentioned knowingly, giving me an evil smile as he walked over to his bathroom.

"That has nothing to do with it, just move it!" I snapped, sitting on his bed as he walked out.

"Sure it doesn't," he drew out as he went to the bathroom.

I sat down on his bed to wait as he left his room. How did I end up with this lazy ass as my best friend? I remembered back to our first day in elementary school when we both met and we had an argument on who would get their name shortened to Tai. His full name being longer than mine gave him the edge he needed to get the class to vote for him. After learning we were neighbors in the same apartment building, things started to fall into place.

He walked back in, almost the same way he left, telling me to get out so he could change.

"Tai, aren't you going to brush your hair or something?" I asked; looking at the disheveled pile of brown hair on his head that looked like he just got out of, oh wait he just did.

"Dude, we've been through this before, my hair is styled so that my bedhead looks identical to my hair after brushing it," he reasoned with me and he walked in. "It saves time."

I sighed and said as I left, "Alright, I'll wait for you by the elevator, all right?"

"Sure thing, dude," was his nonchalant response.

After leaving I yelled back, "You got 5 minutes, or I leave without you!"

As I walked out his mother smiled as she said, "I don't know how you do it. Thanks for your help, Taiso. Without you, I don't know what I'd do"

I gave her a small smile as I left. I went to the elevator returning to my previous train of thought. 'We're some pair of friends,' I thought as I walked over. There was me, responsible, hard-working, and one of the best in my class while he was irresponsible, lazy, and by some miracle, just passing all his classes. They say opposites attract in some cases, but come on.

I checked my phone and saw the 5 minutes finish up and I pressed the down arrow on the elevator. It opened, I pressed the lobby floor and as the door begin to close I heard, "Hey, wait up!" Sure enough, Tai was there, running at full speed, trying to make it before the elevator doors closed. He literally crashed into the elevator before the doors closed; sprawled on the ground, out of breath from running. As he got up muttering something about me being a horrible friend by going ahead without him, I frowned as I looked at his attire. His clothes were wrinkled, blazer unbuttoned, belt barely buckled, and his tie was loose. I'm amazed he remembered his bag in the shape he was in.

"You listening to me," he panted looking at me with an annoyed look on his face.

"I gave you 5 minutes," I said as we reached the lobby. "If you moved at the same speed you did as the elevator closed, we wouldn't have this problem, now would we?"

He rolled his eyes as he said, "Shut up. You sound exactly like your parents, man. Would it kill you to chill out for once?"

Chill out for once. That one phrase comes up all the time between us. Yeah, I can be uptight and sometimes seem crazy, but I got expectations to live up to. Almost everyone in the past generation of the Hyōshōdai family, including both my parents, have either been Olympic gold medalists or professional athletes. To add on to that, all of them also had great school records and graduated from good universities as well. I have to be near perfect both mentally and physically in order to keep up with the expectations put out for me. So I've got a right to be stressed a lot of the time.

On the other hand, there's Tai, who somehow got everyone with low expectations of him since I've known him. Unlike me, he's never stressed and his biggest problem is probably being bored. While I was part of gymnastics as part of my Olympic training, I couldn't get him to participate in any sport at all. In fact, if I hadn't dragged him over, he probably wouldn't have joined the soccer club at all. Despite all these problems he has, he happens to be my best friend. His reasoning behind it is that he keeps me from losing it to stress overload and I make sure he doesn't fall behind due to lack of drive. So, he calms me down and I keep him from failing? I can't say it's completely false, but it is a bit of a stretch.

"Alright man. I'll try to chill. It's just well, you know," I said as our journey to school finally began.

"Today's that day isn't it," he said as he walked beside me.

"Yea, I guess it is," I sighed, not really wanting to admit it.

"_She_ comes back today, doesn't she," he said, not turning his head as we continued on our way.

_She_ is my older sister, Hyōshōdai Archeri. She had been away for a year due to a scholarship allowing her to spend a year at a boarding school far from our home. Thanks to that, I didn't have to deal with Ms. Perfect undermining everything I do. Unlike me, who struggles to maintain good grades and keep my gymnastics above the curve, everything seems to come to her naturally. She was easily one of the best in her class academically, and her sport of choice, archery, seemed to just be another gift bestowed to her from the heavens. She was a perfect candidate for a future Olympic team in archery. As for me, if I slipped up even a little, my Olympic career is over. She was better than me in almost everything, and the onslaught of "Why can't you be more like your sister," remarks from my parents never let me forget it. The worst part of all of this is, according to the rumors I heard, she's taken up soccer as well.

For the past year, I've been able to improve myself without having her to compare to. Every morning there would be no competition for who got to use the bathroom first, no who was doing better in school lately, and no competition on who was the soccer club captain. Now she was back, and I could feel her presence just waiting to begin raining on my parade. The only glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel was that she was a third year, and that meant her giant shadow could only loom over me for one more year.

The rest of the walk to school was rather quiet. Neither of us spoke as we just walked silently until we reached the school. Our school, Hikari Jr. High, in comparison to others, is pretty normal sized. It isn't too small like some of the lesser known schools, but not as big as some of the larger known schools like Raimon Jr. High. Although not as well known for our soccer, Hikari Jr. was better known for the other sports and our academics.

Upon entering the school's gates, I sighed and said, "Well Tai, we might as well stop by the club before school begins." We walked over to the small shack that was home to our soccer club. It wasn't too big, but it was roomy enough to fit everyone in our club. I opened the door and we decided to talk with the team in the time we had before school started.

Our team was pretty small in the sense that we didn't officially have even eleven members. One member, a girl named Crystal, was indecisive whether she would invest fully in the club or not. We registered her as a member so we could say we had eleven players and usually when we played matches against other schools, Crystal would join us, but she never came to practice or any of our meetings. As for everyone else, they were in for the long haul.

First up is our goalkeeper, 2nd year Morimaru Shizen. Shizen, all things considered, is a pretty cool guy. He is around the same height as Tai and I, has spiky brownish hair with a tint of green in it, and has green eyes. He is really calm and helps calm down the team by trying to get people to try yoga with him. When not playing with the team, he is very active in protecting the environment and is only angry when someone treats it like trash by littering or something of the sort. His original position was forward, but since no one would play keeper, and he was the only one with any skill in the position, he decided he would bear the cross of defending our goal.

Hanging out with Shizen was two of our defenders: Safu Shio and Yosai Tetsu. Shio and Tetsu were the two opposites of the team, besides Tai and myself of course. While Shio was short, and I mean really short, and close to the ocean, Tetsu towered us all like looming mountains. The only real thing they had in common was their dark skin and boisterous personalities. Strangely enough, although they argued all the time, they were one of the best tag-teams in the school.

Shio is a bright and perky 1st year with bushy brown, with a touch of blonde, hair who still believes in all things good and still acts unaware of Fifth Sector's power over us. The little guy is all about the ocean since he loves fishing with his father every day. As for Tetsu-_san_ as he forces us all to call him, he is a giant with spiky black hair and purple eyes whose main goal is to become the next MMA champion. His reason for joining the team was just so he could build his leg muscles, but hey, at least we have him. His personal nickname for himself is Everest, since he towers over all of us in height, but then again, he's the only 3rd year on the team, so it's expected.

While Shizen and Shio tried to convince Tetsu to try out some yoga, the other 4 members were having a chat on the table. On one side were cousins Tensai Arashi and Mimikku Yasashi. Arashi has blue and blonde hair that together form a thundercloud above him and Yasashi has brown hair with two pigtails hanging out back. Both of them had steel eyes that showed determination. Yasashi, the new first year was the shy younger cousin who ended up following his cousin around while Arashi was the 2nd year who truly wanted the best for his cousin, but still wanted some distance from clingy Yasashi. Unfortunately, if Arashi could get rid of Yasashi for more than 10 minutes, the next person who got sucked into Yasashi's cheery personality got themselves a mini-clone they couldn't wait to get rid of.

On the other side were Chisoku Hayai and Kagemaru Chryde who called Tai and me over. Hayai was a "let's do this now and ask questions later" kind of guy who always rushed everyone and everything. For this brown-haired and red eyed 1st year, everything needed to move extremely quickly. His impatience started to annoy me, as he started bragging how he was always first in the club room every morning before school and every afternoon when school finished. I can't believe I'm saying this, but _he needs to chill out_. Oh no, I'm turning into Tai! The effects of being around him so much have finally begun!

"Captain, you there?" a deep low voice, belonging to the redhead who unnaturally blended with his surrounding, asked as he rose up behind me. You think a guy with red hair would be easy to recognize, but then you haven't met Chryde whose specialty was moving through the shadows unnoticed. It took me until our second year to realize he was in the same class as us even though I see him all the time during afterschool practice. His dark purple eyes and dark presence around him contradicted both our school name and his actual personality. Since we know him, there's no surprise that he's a real nice guy. However, by just looking at him, he gives the feel of a depressing Goth kid who with dampen your day real quick. It just takes him a while to talk to people he doesn't know.

"I'm fine, just tired," I said as I got out of daydreaming funk.

"He's just annoyed 'cause Archeri returns today and she's gonna wreck his day," Tai joked to them.

"Oh yeah, know I remember! Archeri is his sister, right? I've never met her! Is she pretty? Is she nice? Is she…," began Hayai asking 50 questions a minute while I gave Tai a death stare for starting him off.

"Anyway," Arashi began sighing, hoping to settle him down. "Captain, have you seen the news for the final of the Holy Road? Seidouzan's opponent for the final is Raimon Jr.!"

"I know! It's amazing! Their game against Arakumo Gakuen was phenomenal!" was my response. Raimon Jr. High was a school that was doing the unthinkable, going against Fifth Sector's orders and trying to win the Holy Road in order to over throw them and take back real soccer. "If this keeps up we might get real soccer! By the way, that reminds me, Tai, you owe me 500 yen."

"Shut up," was his quick response. He's been betting me Raimon would lose their next game the entire tournament and he hasn't kept up any of those bets. He probably owes me like $3000 yen by now…

"GUYS, I HAVE BIG NEWS!" was a large cry from the door. Busting in the club room was a second year with turquoise hair and shiny glasses, Hanraku Kagaku, our final member. He was the "brains" of the team, both in grades and in strategy. He aced all his classes that were so advanced they were for 3rd years, and he was the one who came up with plans for different situations in games, not that we'd ever use them, thanks to Fifth Sector. We all turned to him as the genius 2nd year pushed in his glasses and opened his blue eyes.

"I have some good news and bad news for you all. What should I begin with Captain Taiso," he then said quietly, completely the opposite of before.

"Well, I think we all need some good news," I said, looking around to make sure I thought right. All nods, except for the 'I don't really care,' from Tai. I looked back at Kagaku to signal him to continue.

"Word around the school is that someone is planning to join our club after school! We'll finally have 11 members!"

I smiled. 'Well, it's about time.' I thought to myself until I heard, "What's the bad news?" from my good friend Tai.

Kagaku then blanched as he said, "Well, the exact same rumors all say that…"

"This new player is a SEED, isn't he," finished Shizen, opening one eye, but not moving from his yoga position.

"How did you," Kagaku started.

"The trees told me," Shizen stated as a matter of factly. We all stared at him confused before he continued, "I also happened to hear about this last night."

"Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, right Taiso?" was Tai's remark with a smirk on his face. I was still in too much shock to reply. A SEED?! Here? Why? We didn't do anything to anger Fifth Sector, we followed the score orders! Why send an elite member to here of all places?

"Hey, buddy, you there?" was the question that brought me back. I looked at Tai, whose smirk changed to a serious face that matched everyone else's face. They wanted me to say something. I was their captain after all.

I cleared my throat and said, "Well, a player is a player. We need someone to finish our team of eleven. We'll deal with their position as a SEED afterwards. We need to stick together and not let this guy crawl under our skin. Look at Raimon, their ace used to be a SEED, and now he's one of the people at the front of the revolution! So, we'll take on this SEED, and deal with him the Hikari Jr. High way!" I gave a triumphant grin as I heard the rest of the team, minus Tai who just stood there with a smile; scream out, "YEAH!" With that as a final note, the first bell rang, and everyone made their way to class.

"Not a bad speech, my man. Not bad at all," was Tai's response as we both walked over to class.

"Thanks, we all need to lift our heads up right now. If we work together, we can make it through this hurdle and," I began before I was cut off with, "All right Superman, one speech per day man. Save it for after school" I chuckled before nodding as we got to class. I sat down with Tai sitting to my right waiting for the teacher to come in. After he left the classroom when he finished attendance and giving us some work to do, I heard a loud 'thunk.' I looked to my right and saw Tai, asleep on his textbook like usual. 'Yea, things will stay the same, no matter what happens," I thought, seeing the familiar sight.

The rest of the school day went on like any normal day. We went through our basic classes; I took down notes and paid attention while Tai napped through all the classes. It was the middle of the year by now, so all of the teachers were used to this and had given up on trying to keep him awake. However, Tai's internal clack must have been working because as soon as the final bell rang, he awoke with a jolt.

"Another day, another dollar, right Taiso?" he said as he jumped up from his chair.

"Oh, uh, yeah," I fumbled quickly. Okay, so I was thinking about the new addition to the team. He was a SEED, so he had to be good. He was here to try to make sure Fifth Sectors rules were followed, but how would he go about it? Would he choose a more forceful route or would he secretly try to take control behind a pretense? I guess it was time to finally find out.

Tai and I slowly regrouped with the rest of the team on the pitch in the back of the school for afternoon practice. Everyone got into our team uniform, white jerseys with a yellow collar, with red stripes along the shoulders culminating with little light marks at the sleeves and our school emblem in the upper left hand corner of the shirt with yellow shorts with the same red stripes along the sides. Practice began but it was obvious to tell that no one was really paying attention. Everyone was thinking the same thing, 'When is the new player going to show up?'

I went over by Shizen and Tai who were talking quietly by one of the goals.

"Hey guys, what's up? You're not really trying as hard as you usually do," I said. Before Tai could day anything, I continued, "Except for Tai. You never end up doing anything at all."

Tai ignored my comment and said, "Look around you, man. No one's really going full throttle today. Everyone's too worried about the new guy. Not even you are playing to your full potential."

I was confused. "Still, we need to think like we did this morning and not care who this new guy is a SEED or not. Why is everyone wavering now?"

Shizen added on, "It's because he's a SEED that the tension is higher. He's late. A true SEED would have gotten here as soon as he could and made his presence known."

As Shizen finished that comment, a soccer ball fired rapidly at him from the air at the other side of the field. The force and speed of the ball was so great he was sent back flying as the ball flew in the net. As I saw him get up, I heard a familiar voice say, "Well, well. I'm sorry I'm new at this whole SEED thing."

I turned around to see a silhouette of the owner of the shot that took down Shizen as it slowly fell from the sky until it landed on the ground gracefully. My eyes widened as the silhouette stood back up and blonde hair fell just upon the shoulders of this new person. My mouth dropped when the head turned and I saw a red flower on the side of this newcomer's hair. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing. It wasn't a joke, nor was it a hallucination.

"Well, isn't that a cliché revelation," Tai said as he leaned against the goalpost, his eyes closed with a smile forming on his face.

The rest of the team looked upon this new person as the silhouette came into complete view from the other side of the field. No one knew this person as they drew nearer and nearer.

Shizen got up, hand on his stomach, questioning, "What do you mean, Tai? Do you know him?" He turned to me and started asking, "Captain? Who is he…I mean she?!"

I closed my mouth and my eyes went back to normal. I stood up straight and stared and said what I've been dreading to say all day.

"Hyōshōdai Archeri."

**That's the end of Chapter 1. How'd you like it? Please leave a review on what you thought! I'm also putting up a pic of Taiso and Tai in their school uniform up on my DeviantArt, so check it out! Link to it is in my bio! Thanks for reading!**

**-MateiFire **


	3. Enter Archeri

**A/N: Here comes Chapter 2! Like stated in the preview, chapters will alternate in POV between Taiso and Taidana. Therefore, this chapter will have a small overlap from the last chapter (consider it a recap of shorts) just with Tai's view on how things went. Just a warning before reading,1)Tai can and WILL break the fourth wall from time to time whether to speed things up or any other reason and 2) might use stronger language than his friend Taiso, so just be prepared for that. With that out of the way, enjoy Chapter 2!**

**Tai: He forgot the disclaimer, so here:**

**DISCLAIMER:**** I don't own Inazuma Eleven, GO, Chrono Stone, or Galaxy**

**Chapter 2: Enter Archeri**

**Tai's POV**

So, previously on _Path of Heroes, _I was woken up from a dream I can't remember thanks to Taiso. After getting ready and sprinting as fast as possible just so I catch with him, we walked to prison also known as Hikari Jr. High. We met up with the rest of the team: nature man Shizen, short and cheery Shio, 'do you even lift bro' Tetsu, storms a brewing Arashi, copycat Yasashi, Hayai the hedgehog, dark and brooding Chryde, and lastly local smartass Kagaku. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate these guys, just call it friendly love or something. Anyway, after some bad news from Kagaku, good old Taiso decided to give us some speech to lift our spirits. For once, the desired effect took place. After several hours of napping through the classes known as school, I had to go to practice with our team before meeting the SEED and subject of who Taiso was bitching about all day. However, in his defense, I can relate to having a sibling who is always above you, making your life suck, but that's a story for another day.

So, now we get to where we are now:

"Hyōshōdai Archeri," was Taiso's 'dramatic' cliffhanger.

"What, I'm gone for a year, and no 'Welcome back, sis or anything? Well, I feel loved," was Archeri's sarcastic response. Archeri's hair was blonder than Tai's, she probably added some dye or something, and her hair was now shorter than before, reaching up to her shoulders now. She also decided to add a red flower to her hair. (How that didn't just fly off when she shot that ball at Shizen, I will never know). Instead of wearing the school uniform, since she just got back, she just wore an orange sweatshirt and jeans.

She looked over at me and smiled as she said, "Oh so Taidana's here too, huh. So we got 'So and 'Dana on the same team."

I cringed a bit at that comment. Back in the day, she joked how both our names started with 'Tai' and used it as a joke.

I waved it off, smiled and said back as I opened my eyes, "I see you haven't changed, 'Cheri"

She flinched, then smiled back and said "Neither have you, Tai."

However, she has changed a bit. I actually know her, unlike the rest of the team, excluding Tai of course. Since Tai and I have been friends, and neighbors, for years, I've ran into her while at his place whether it's to hang out, forced to study, or watch the Holy Road tournament in past years. All the times before, she's always been really cheery and happy. Sure, she'd tease the two of us, but that was her job as Taiso's older sister, and it was never in a manner that was meant to be truly insulting or something. Most of the time she was really nice, helpful, pretty…

Before you think anything, I'll answer your question. Yes. Yes, I do have a crush on my best friend's sister. It's a really awkward to be in a room with the two because I can't really choose a side seriously. No one knows about this because I haven't dared to try to ask her out or anything. I can't date my friend's arch nemesis, even if she is her sister. I don't have time to find a new best friend. I was lucky enough to have him, annoying as he can be. However, when Taiso wasn't around, I made a couple of jokes in an attempt to 'flirt' with her. Anyway, trying to date her would just be too much work.

That's beside the point right now. The Archeri I once knew is very different from the one I see right here. Her face seemed a lot more threatening than before, but it seemed like it was uncomfortable. Maybe she was really new at this being a SEED and her scary face needed work. I looked around at the team and sweatdropped at what I saw. It actually worked on them! Thankfully, Taiso was unaffected, but that's expected.

Archeri stepped forward and spoke up, "My name is Hyōshōdai Archeri and by Fifth Sector's order's I am here to take charge of this school's soccer club." Her delivery of this was rather rigid and shaky, almost as if she was reading cue cards.

"Wait a minute," Taiso stepped up from the group of scared chickens I'm proud to call my friends. "Since when were you a part of Fifth Sector? Before you left, you barely played soccer and were completely focused on your archery skills."

Archeri's face changed completely at that moment. "Apparently, I had a natural talent for it, and Fifth Sector realized it. In exchange for a year in another school that would help my skills in archery exponentially, I help them with their control of soccer and stuff." Her voice changed to one that was tougher and more demanding than before. So she did have a small grasp of how to be intimidating, nice. "However, if you want, you can challenge me to a small game where if you win you can keep things the way you want.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it…

"We'll take you on that challenge!" Taiso immediately called out. Damn it.

Archeri gave an (evil I guess?) smile and said, "All right, the challenge is simple. Five of you, including a goalkeeper have to keep me from scoring a goal for 5 minutes. Simple enough, _Captain?_" She put extra weight into the word 'Captain' to add pressure to Taiso. Effective tactic I must say.

So, Taiso took us into a huddle in the corner to decide who would represent us in this wacky competition to 'save' ourselves from her. Even if we won, couldn't she just take over with her authority as a SEED of Fifth Sector? Man, everyone in my friend's family makes it seem that winning a competition is necessary, even if you have an easier method.

"Alright, so we have to keep her from scoring, so besides Shizen as goalie and me as Captain, we'd do best with 3 defenders in this showdown," Taiso laid down the situation for us.

3 defenders. Crap. That means I probably have to be part of this fiasco. I sighed and waited for Taiso to call my name.

Taiso called out, "We'll go with Chryde, Shio, and…"

"Me." I finished. Why did I interject? There was a chance I would have to join in. I mean Tetsu or Yasashi could have been chosen.

Surprised, Taiso said, "Seriously Tai? I was gonna choose Tetsu, but if you want to, then ok I guess." Damn it. He continued seriously, by saying, "However, if you do nothing like you usually do, I'll never forgive you and I'll make sure everyone else helps in making you suffer.

I can't blame him for that. In any match that we ended up playing, friendly, tournament based, or otherwise, I would just stand there and do nothing. Even if the score order from Fifth Sector was for us to win or we had a free game, I still wouldn't do anything. I would just stand and let people past me. The first reason was that I was lazy, I won't lie about that. However, the second reason, I would never say to anyone, but it was that playing a game run by an outside party didn't seem like it was worth playing.

However, there was something different about this competition. I don't know what it was. For some unexplainable reason, I put myself out there for once. Without my opinion, my body moved on its own and volunteered itself into the battle. I should really get that checked. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be possible. Is it some sort of disease I don't know of? I snapped out of my daydream to remember what was going on. Why was I doing this?

Apparently, Taiso was thinking the same thing, since he asked, "Tai, are you sure about this? This isn't really like you."

What was causing this? It sure as hell wasn't Archeri. I just explained why I tried to avoid choosing sides between these always warring siblings. 'Screw it,' I thought. I might as well go for it now that I'm stuck in this mess.

"Don't worry Taiso, I'm sure," was my final response. "Now what's the strategy?"

Taiso nodded and said, "Well Archeri isn't that much of an experienced player, so she can't be all that…"

"Did you not hear her, they said she had natural talent," Chryde interrupted.

"He's got a point," Shio continued, "She couldn't have become a SEED if she wasn't qualified for the position."

Taiso grinded his teeth before saying, "Fine. Go all out as if you're up against a professional player." I rolled my eyes and headed toward the field. He's acting as if he's facing off against a god instead of his own sister. She's only a year older than us, calm down.

She started off with the ball at the middle of the field. We got a random teacher to ref the match so it would be unbiased. Why? It's not even an actual game! No fouls could be called, there were no real bounds, and the test was if she could score, so why? I guess Taiso didn't want to take any chances. When both sides were ready, the whistle blew and the face-off began.

"I'm up against me first!" Taiso obviously rushed up at Archeri to have their 'sibling faceoff.'

"Whatever," Archeri said in a singsong voice. She ran up and spun around Taiso's charge. After easily dodging her brother she lifted the ball and shot it?! She shot the ball from halfway as if it was the kickoff of a game and she was aiming directly for the goal. The ball zoomed past the 3 of our heads and was headed straight for Shizen.

Taiso turned back, still amazed that he was avoided so easily and screamed, "Shizen! You got this!"

Shizen crossed his arms in an X-shape before pulling them to both sides. As he did so, Wolverine-like claws made of fire were released from his hands. As he continuously slashed the ball with these claws, he screamed the name of his hissatsu, Flaming Claws. It's kind of weird for a nature freak to have a hissatsu that bases on fire, but whatever gets the job done, right?

The last slash he did was enough to knock the ball back towards Chryde. Shizen gave a small fist pump in celebration. Chryde passed the ball to Taiso, knowing with the ball in our possession, all we had to do was stall.

However, Archeri intercepted his pass and ran back before setting up for her own hissatsu. She lifted the ball waist-high before kicking it several times as it turned blue. Wait a second, I've seen this move before.

"Divine Arrow!" Archeri screamed, delivering the final blow to the now speeding ball. Ha, truly a move befitting or an archer.

With the ball speeding towards the goal, Shio ran up in order to try and stop it. He raised his arms and a platform around him rose up as water rose to the level the ball was at.

"Tidal Break!" was the cry that came from our short defender. The water that came in like the change in tides was like a wall that slowed down that bullet of a ball. Unfortunately, it couldn't finish the job as the ball split the water in half like the Red Sea and continued to Shizen once again.

This time, Shizen crouched down and put his arms on the ground as eagle-like wings formed on his back. He soared up with his hands taking the properties of talons of a bird of prey.

"Sky Talons!" he screamed, slamming his hands/talons on the ball until it hit the ground slowing it down until it came to a stop. Now that's a move that fits him.

"Over here," was Taiso, who finally was free of his sister, called out. He passed the ball all the way to Taiso this time to try to avoid a quick interception.

We were doing pretty well. Although she had gotten 2 shots on us, we had managed to block both. Then why was I worried. As I saw Taiso easily lose the ball again, I realized what was wrong: she was going easy on us. She was practically toying with us. She charged up the field, this time easily avoiding Shio's Tidal Break by jumping over the rising water level. This point was farther proved when she jumped over a joint slide tackle from Chryde and me. Is this the power of a SEED?

Taiso once again screamed, "Shizen one more time!"

Shizen focused himself from the ever getting closer Archeri. When spitting distance from Shizen, she vanished from in front of him. I looked around until I saw her reappear at the middle of the field. A sly smile formed on her face as she lifted her hand before forming an 'L' and putting it eye level between her and Shizen. If you didn't know Archeri before this moment, you'd think she was using that 'L" as in loser, and the rest of the team thought that, screaming her to say to their faces and such.

"Guys, she's not calling you losers," Taiso called back at them. He turned to me and continued, "You know what that is right, Tai?"

"Yeah," was my slow response. She was aiming at a target. Like I said before, she had intensive experience in archery and it seemed that played a factor in her hissatsu. If she separated herself from her target before shooting, it only meant one thing, there's no stopping this one.

The goal became the apple, she was Robin Hood and as she shot, she screamed, "50 PACES!" signifying the quick retreat to the middle of the field was signifying 50 paces between her and the target. The ball was faster than ever and with no time to send out a hissatsu; both Shio and Chryde threw themselves at the shot and quickly being blown back by the force of the shot. I quickly ran back since I knew what was coming. Shizen unfortunately thought he'd have enough time to prepare for his strongest hissatsu and was sadly mistaken as the ball was a few feet from the goal in a couple more seconds. He abandoned the hissatsu and tried to stop it with his hands but it eventually blew him away.

Archeri turned back, closed her eyes, smiled and said, "We're done here." She looked up at Taiso and was confused when she saw him smile.

"You sure about that?" was Taiso's reply. "Look behind you."

Archeri looked behind her to see the ball fly back towards her. "WHAT, HOW?!"

She looked towards the goal to not only see Shizen on the floor, but also Yours Truly as well. After Shizen fell, I ran in front of the ball right before it passed the goal line, and caused it to bounce back. It was a real pain, not the ball but the fact that I had to run there. However, it was worth it, less than a minute was left on Archeri's challenge, so if we kept her from scoring for a while longer, we would win the challenge. That is, until she starting laughing.

"To think that my brother's team could push me this far," she said softly as a dark aura surrounded her. "However, this will finish you." She took the ball and formed her 'aiming' pose and the dark aura she had before suddenly skyrocketed as a dark purple fire erupted from her back. The purple flames continued to emerge until they reached about triple her size. It began to take a humanoid shape. Once the flames had fully formed into their shape, they flew away revealing what was underneath, a keshin.

The apparition was revealed to be a majestic goddess with long flowing blonde hair with flowers all over it. It wore a white dress like a white sheet with a sky blue sash in the middle. It had gold arm bands on arm with one hand holding a bow and another full of energy swirling around it. On its back, it held a quiver full of arrows. Finally, atop its head was a reef of olive branches and leaves as if a crown.

"Behold, my keshin Archeri no Megami Artemis (Goddess of Archery Artemis)!" Archeri yelled out.

'A keshin, not bad,' I thought to myself. I looked at my teammates who all had their mouths dropped and their faces looked like all hope was lost.

"Archeri is k-k-keshin user?" Taiso asked, for once not up to the challenge.

'She's a SEED. There was a high chance she could since the beginning,' I thought.

"I never thought I'd ever see one," Shio said. Chryde nodded his head.

"Guys, you see them in like every match of the Holy Road. There's no way you haven't seen them on TV," I started. "You guys keep talking about reaching the championship; did you think you'd never have to face one in your life?" Seriously, sometimes my teammates surprise me. However, it wasn't just them. Everyone on the sidelines, whether it be teammate, spectator, or teacher was wide-eyed and mouth-dropped. Wow, these guys are easily impressed.

That didn't mean the situation wasn't drastic. A keshin definitely was stronger than her previous hissatsu shoots. We almost didn't stop the last one. We just need to keep her from scoring for around 30 seconds. The question was simple: How do we do that?

'I have to do it,' I thought to myself. 'There's no other choice.' I didn't know whether I could accomplish it but I had to try since otherwise we have no choice. I closed my eyes and flashbacked to a couple years ago…

_Flashback_

_Now this flashback takes place around 2 years ago when Archeri was a 1__st__ year and Taiso and I were on our final year of elementary school. _

"_Hey Tai, I'm starting up soccer," Tai told me._

"_Why, you already do so many things between your Olympic training, homework, and…" I started until I was cut off._

"_You're joining me. I'm giving you something to do with your time, and I figured if it was something we did together, it would be easier to keep an eye on you," he finished._

_I was going to argue, but I stopped myself. I looked at his face and saw a face that said, 'You're not getting out of this one, so don't try.' It also said something else, but I couldn't figure out what it was. The next week he invited me over his house to a game of Holy Road where I figured out the actual reason._

"_S'up Tai? You here to watch the game with Taiso?" Archeri asked me that evening._

"_Yeah, he's got me playing soccer, and he wants me to watch a game so I can learn," I said._

"_Oh, you too! That means all 3 of us are playing soccer now! I now can actually talk to you guys about stuff!" she exclaimed smiling._

"_Wait a second 'Cheri. When did you start up soccer? I was a couple weeks ago and you were 110% focused on your archery training," I asked her._

"_Oh I started a little over a week ago. It sort of just happened and I decided to join the team. I'm actually got a knack for the sport," she answered._

_So that's why he's got me playing soccer. Yet another thing he'll try and inevitably fail at being better than Archeri at. Great, now I have something new to hear him complain about. However…_

'_When we enter Jr. High next year, Taiso will undoubtedly make us join the team,' I thought, 'If I get pretty good at this, I can impress Archeri without being too showy in front of Taiso.'_

_So, I decided on doing a bit of training every day without Taiso's watchful eye over me. If he knows I'm doing some extra training: 1) he'll expect me to do more everyday tasks as well and 2) he could find out about my crush on Archeri and neither of those situations is good. I continued this until around the beginning of our 1__st__ year. One day, towards the end of my secret training, I felt a large amount of power wanting to burst out of my body. So, with one great motion, I released this power and the purple flames of a keshin came out of me. Unfortunately, it never finished taking full form, but if I tried it again, I think it would work out. I was excited to show the team (especially Archeri) the next day. However, the next day I was not greeted by Archeri but rather a smiling Taiso._

"_Why are you so happy?" I asked him._

"_Archeri, she's going to be gone for an entire year!" he exclaimed._

"_Wait, what?" I was shocked. He proceeded to explain the scholarship she got that allowed her to study at a school that helped her with her archery skills for a year._

_Disappointed, but not showing it, I chose not to reveal the fact that I was close to awakening my own keshin that day. I never did do so in the future because I knew if I ever showed it, Taiso would actually expect things from me during games and practice. _

_End Flashback_

This was the only time that revealing my keshin would have a true impact. Also, facing off against another keshin is usually the best way for it to finally take full form. I took my place in the space between Shizen and Archeri, ready to shoot with her keshin shoot.

"Here it goes!" She yelled as she shot the ball and her keshin shot an arrow, causing the ball to have the power and speed of the arrow. It blew past Taiso, Shio and Chryde and I knew that if it passed me, Shizen wouldn't stand a chance.

"It's now or never," I said softly and I released any pent up power from within myself that I've kept stored for these past couple years and I felt the purple flames erupt from my back. They continued going and I kept at it in order for them to take shape. I added a small scream to this process which gave it the final push to finish shaping from a humanoid being in flames to the actual embodiment of my keshin.

"Here goes nothing," I shouted out, "Come on out, my keshin: Seishin Dejitaru X! (Digital Spirit X).

My keshin turned out to be giant ripped warrior with huge muscles and a six-pack. It was my keshin right? It seemed to have a cable belt before the flames that would return to me. Upon its shoulders was a golden scabbard with spikes on each shoulder. The forearms of the keshin turned out to be mechanical arm and hands with blue jewels at the hands several gauges along the arms. It the core of the keshin, there is a crevice where a blue jewel sits. The eyes of the spirit were covered by a Zorro-like mask. Besides that, the face was an almost identical to Yours Truly's. Even down to the messy bedhead, it was alike. Lastly, true to its name, there was a giant black 'X' on its back with blue tips that seemed to collect energy. So in short, the opposite of myself, but hey, I'm not complaining.

As everyone, including Archeri stood there shocked I threw myself at the spiraling ball and used all the power I summoned to send it flying into the air above Archeri's head. It heard the 3 tweets from the whistle given to our 'referee.' The 5 minutes were now up. We managed to keep her from scoring, so we won the showdown. As my keshin receded into my back, my team ran back to me question after question.

"How did you do that?" was from Shio hopping around like a bunny.

"You okay, dude? That was awesome!" Yasashi yelled from the back of the crowd.

Taiso walked up to me from the back and looked me in the eye.

"So, how long have you been hiding that from us?" he asked slowly.

Great, he knew. "Just about a year. Doesn't matter really," I panted, "It came through where it counts, right?"

Next up was Archeri. She walked up with a small frown from her defeat and looked at me. I looked up from my bent over position, (I was tired) I saw a smile form on her face. Not an evil smile either, rather a nice smile, one of the ones I remembered.

"So how come I've never seen you do that before?" she asked.

I smiled and got up to my feet, "Just way too much work," I replied.

She gave a small laugh, "You really haven't changed, Tai." She turned to Taiso now.

"Well, since I lost, I can't really take over this club immediately. However, as a member of this school, I still have a right to join, right," she demanded rather than asked. "I'll be taking the ace's seat.

Taiso grit his teeth and yelled to Kagaku, "Get the number 10, Archeri's our new ace."

"Hey, how come? I thought I would become the ace of the team?" he yelled back at him.

Archeri looked at him and said, "We could also have a striker contest on who is worthy of the ace's spot."

He blanched at that comment and said nothing else. He returned with the uniform with the number 10 on it, now in the hands of the SEED who joined the team.

**And with that, Chapter 2 comes to a close. Archeri has joined the team! What will happen? How will Fifth Sector respond and how will the finale of the Holy Road change this team? Some of these questions and more, answered in Chapter 3! Next chapter is Taiso's POV! Thanks for reading and review!**

**P.S. Pics for both keshin will be uploaded to my Deviant Art! As always the link is in my bio/profile!**


	4. The Final Match

**A/N: Before I say anything, I want to apologize for the long wait for this chapter. Summer's ended and I've gone back to school and getting re-adjusted has taken some time out of writing. However, now that I got a hang of my schedule, I should be able to get writing more often. This is the last chapter before the plot really gets underway, so enjoy. **

**Here's Chapter 3! We return to Taiso's POV as Archeri's return changes everything for him. How will Raimon's match at the end of the Holy Road mean for him and his team? Find out now!**

**P.S. Since I've made it a personal motivator to have another pic per chapter, I've decided certain chapters I'll upload some older ones, but colored in. This week is siblings Taiso and Archeri!**

**P.S.S. I know most of you already have an idea of what most hissatsu/keshin look like, but since later on in the story I'll be introducing hissatsu/keshin I've made myself, I'll be describing some of the already known hissatsu as practice you could say. **

**DISCLAIMER:**** I don't own Inazuma Eleven, GO, Chrono Stone, or Galaxy**

**Chapter 3: The Final Match**

**Taiso's POV**

I'm speechless. Who cares that we just beat Archeri and the team is safe and stuff, when did TAI GET A KESHIN?! I brought him into this sport and anytime he's even looked at a ball, I've been there with him. Heck, for the last year, getting him to practice was a chore. I don't think he even has a hissatsu technique, but now he's got a keshin, I mean COME ON! So yeah, I'm a bit jealous.

I go up to him and ask him how long he's had this power. His response is that he's had it over a year. A YEAR?! That could have been so helpful before! Well not really since Fifth Sector regulates everything, but still! Now he's making idle chitchat with my arch-enemy, Archeri. Without much of a fight, we ended up giving the SEED the ace's seat.

"Just so you know, my job isn't done," Archeri warned us. "I just need some backup from Fifth Sector and I'll have the authority to take over this team."

'So, she's not done,' I thought to myself. Great, more for me to deal with. As the captain, I end up doing all the dirty work of keeping us on Fifth Sector's good side. Our coach is just our science teacher who thought he could make a couple extra bucks by being our coach as well. He doesn't design training menus or strategies against enemies, but rather keeps the place as adult supervisor. As he's known by Tai, he's Coach Useless. So in the end, I'm the one who has to take charge.

With Archeri's addition, the day's practice was over. I thought I was done with problems for the day until I remembered, I'm stuck with her the entire walk home. I was both relieved and annoyed that she spent the entire time talking with Tai about keshins and how they awakened theirs and all that kind of stuff. Of course I wasn't included, since I'm still in the "keshin-less" club. After a while, Tai gave me the 'save me, she's talking too much,' face which I returned with the 'not my problem' face. Thankfully, we finally reached our apartment building.

As Archeri ran to the elevator, I grabbed Tai by the arm and yelled, "You go on ahead! Tai and I are going to take the stairs!"

"HUH?!" was Tai's predictable response. She shrugged and nodded as she took the elevator as I dragged a complaining Tai up the stairs.

After a couple minutes, Tai sighed and asked, "Alright man, show's over. What's the real reason you wanted to waste my time with the stairs?" He caught on pretty fast. It usually takes him about 10-15 minutes to deduce what I'm thinking.

"How'd you figure it out?"

"Listen Taiso, I know you hate..."

"I don't hate her."

"OK, despise…"

"Yeah, that doesn't work either."

"Strongly dislike?"

"That's better."

"OK, strongly dislike your sister, but she's not a poisonous disease that if we both take the elevator, she'll kill us both," Tai continued. It's kind of a bit of an extreme analogy if you ask me.

"So, what's the real reason you're forcing to climb up several flights of stairs?" he asked. He gave me a serious stare, which meant he actually was serious for a change.

I looked at him and began, "First of all, she's finally back after a year, so I thought I'd let Mom and Dad get through their 'Welcome Back' talks and such. I don't want to be caught in the middle of Miss Perfect's return."

"Respectable reason. Continue."

"Secondly, you and I need to talk," I told him seriously.

"Sure thing, buddy. What's up?"

I gritted my teeth and said, "Archeri is not too far from taking over the soccer club. I need you to have my back in this 100%. If you're not behind me all the way, the rest of the team won't follow suit."

"So, you're dragging me up some stairs to convince me to make the same decision I already made," he said, giving me an awkward stare.

"This is a serious case, man!" I yelled at him. "As long as Fifth Sector is around, she's got power over us."

"Well, what are you going to do?" he asked. "It's not like they're getting ready to pack their bags and leave."

"There is one chance," I began.

"Oh no, please tell me you don't mean…"

"Raimon's final versus Seidouzan. That final match will decide the Holy Emperor election," I started to smile. "If they win, real soccer will be restored and this problem will blow over. Just give at least until then."

Tai gave me a serious answer, "Fine, pin your hopes on Raimon's victory. What do want from me until then?"

I looked at him and said, "I need your full cooperation and for you to watch my back the entire time."

"You do know you're making this a bigger deal than it is," he said.

"Hey, you just said…"

"I know I said I'll cooperate, but stop making it sound like we're going to war."

"Fine. I just need you to side with me if Archeri starts anything."

He quickly frowned and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute there. I am not becoming a middle man in your sibling rivalry."

"She's a SEED. That's means she's the enemy," I started, "Remember, it's only 'til the end of the week. I just need to have someone to back me up against Archeri."

He gave me a real weak face before slowly agreeing to the plan.

"If it goes too far, I'm out, you got that?"

"I got it. Don't worry, by the end of this week we'll be golden."

With that, we made it to our floor and separated ways to our separate apartments. I joined the 'merriment' of my sister's return. 'At least he doesn't have to deal with her 24/7,' I thought to myself.

**The Next Day…**

As usual, I beat the alarm by a minute and rushed to the bathroom. However, this time, Archeri was their first and took forever to get ready and do her hair and such.

'It's not that difficult,' I thought waiting. 'Even my hair is longer than yours.'

In any case, thanks to Archeri's return to the schedule, life returned to the way it was before. I take longer to finish and barely get any breakfast since I need to get Tai and get moving to school so we're not late. Thankfully, school pretty much stays the same, save the gossip about how our soccer club is doing worse than usual.

As for practice, Archeri doesn't join in, but is instead trying to reach Fifth Sector on how to proceed with our school. However, according to Tai, he believes that Fifth Sector is a bit over occupied with the Raimon mess, and can't help her out yet. Speaking of Tai, he's reluctantly keeping his word by helping me keep team moral up since Archeri's presence sometimes gave some of the members' self-doubt.

The biggest topic of conversation among the team surrounded the game at the end of the week. We heard on the news that Raimon's captain, Shindou Takuto, was injured during the match versus Arakumo Gakuen and couldn't play in the final. I hated this because Shindou was a role model for me, and I admire the leadership he had in leading his team in the revolution. His replacement was the promising first-year, brown wind-blown haired midfielder Matsukaze Tenma. Anyway, my days at home began a real pain and school days were the same except for practice. This cycle continued to go on until Friday afternoon.

**Friday Afternoon…**

I finished taking a shower and putting my bag upon my bed. 'Tonight is the night that decides everything,' I thought. It was the final match of the Holy Road: Raimon VS. Seidouzan.

At 4:50, Tai came over and knocked at our door. "What's up, I'm not late am I?"

"Almost, the game starts in 10 minutes, where have you been?" I yell at him.

"At home, sleeping." He's definitely a lost cause.

Soon, the 3 of us: Tai, Archeri, and myself, are around the TV ready to watch the match. As usual, bets were common amongst us. However, due to our, 'help me beat Archeri, agreement,' instead of betting on the opposite team like he usually did, he bet alongside me against Archeri. After watching both sides get into position, the whistle blew and the final match began!

Seidouzan's strategy of having 4 in the front line got the better of Raimon by constantly sealing off their passes. With no way to attack, Raimon's chances of scoring slimmed quickly. This struggle worked for Seidouzan when their captain Kurosaki Makoto quickly intercepted Raimon's shaky passes. Kurosaki had long brown hair with it in a ponytail at the end and a white headband on his forehead. After passing through most of Raimon's defense, blue-haired defender Kariya forced him into shooting quickly which gave the black mushroom haired goalie Sangoku the time to block it. While I was breathing in after holding my breath from that last play, Seidouzan got an early lead when their captain, Kurosaki, once again intercepted the ball and made a quick goal with his crossbow like hissatsu, Ballista Shot.

"Good old Raimon," Tai mumbled, "Always giving the enemy the first point in every game. Great strategy."

I glared at him before cheering, "They'll come back from this. I know they will."

"Don't waste your breath," was the cold reply of the devil, Archeri. "Raimon doesn't stand a chance against the most elite of Fifth Sector's players."

"We'll just see about that!" I yelled back. "Right, Tai?"

"Yeah, sure, why not…" Worst back-up ever.

Anyway the game resumed with Raimon immediately right after the kickoff shooting with the short blue haired Kurama's Sidewinder. After that half-field snake shot was stopped, Raimon quickly intercepted Seidouzan's counterattack. With the ball in their possession and without a second to react, a quick comeback involving new captain Matsukaze and the team's ace striker spiky, black haired Tsurugi Kyousuke, Raimon tied the game. Intercepting and scoring, talk about giving them a taste of their own medicine.

"Hm, not bad," Archeri observed. She, although slouching with her feet up, was watching the game closely. However, her watching was nothing compared to Tai, who, while usually sleeping or sprawled out bored, was carefully watching all the styles and skills exhibited in the match. I guess everyone has their moments.

After the game reached the tied sore of 1-1, it truly got intense. Immediately with Seidouzan's kickoff, they passed it around and began to start using hissatsu wazas such as Round Spark to cut past the defense by shocking the players with balls of electricity. What's more, as soon as Kurosaki got the ball, he easily cut past the defense until he was one to one with the goalie. He then brought out his keshin, Enma Gazard (Flame Demon Gazard). When the black flames cleared, emerged was a red demon with a devilish grin. With it, he launched himself into the air in a fiery, spinning motion, and kicked the ball with the power of the demon behind him.

"Bakunetsu Storm!" he yelled out the name of the keshin hissatsu, which burned through both the defender Kariya's purple net defense hissatsu: Hunter's Net and goalkeeper Sangoku's stone wall goalie hissatsu: Fence of Gaia. The score was now 2-1, Seidouzan leading. I threw back my head on the coach in frustration while Archeri smiled and Tai continued watching unfazed.

"Who would of thunk he could use the legendary Bakunetsu Storm," Tai began talking.

"Isn't that Gouenji-san's move from back when he was in Inazuma Japan 10 years ago?" I asked.

"Sure is," Archeri spoke up. As both Tai and I looked her way, she continued, "Who do you think taught him that move?"

"H-he was taught by Gouenji Shuuya-san himself?!" I was amazed, the chance to be taught by some of the nation's idols.

"Well yeah, who did you really think the Holy Emperor Ishido Shuuji was?" Archeri continued. "Did you think he was some random guy? He's obviously Gouenji-san."

"WHAT?!" I screamed. The man in charge of Fifth Sector and the coach of Seidouzan was the same man who once played soccer for Japan's national youth team Inazuma Japan and brought them to victory?! "How come I was never told this? Right, Tai?"

"I already knew," he said, eyes not leaving the screen as the goal was replaying.

"How did you already know? Why didn't you tell me?" over several questions were coming out of my mouth after hearing this shocking revelation.

"Well, after the fact that it's really obvious because they look almost identical," he began explaining like it was basic math. It couldn't have been that obvious since I didn't pick up on it. If Tai realized it, anyone should've found out by now, ESPECIALLY ME! My perceptive skills are much better than his! I let it go for now, but I left a mental note to make sure I don't get one-upped by Tai again. I'm supposed to be the smart one in this friendship.

"Besides that," Tai continued, "It is not very obvious that the play styles of many of Seidouzan's players are just like his, most of the players are of the fire element and have the power of an ace striker. If that doesn't tip you off, I don't know what will." Seriously Tai, stop being smart, you're ruining the natural order!

That doesn't mean he was wrong. The offensive plays of Seidouzan were incredibly powerful, it truly seemed like every single one of them did have the skills of an ace striker. Then there was the captain, Kurosaki. He was a keshin user and his keshin hissatsu was the same legendary waza used by Gouenji Shuuya back 10 years ago. Raimon definitely had a tough match ahead of them. However, if real soccer was to be returned to us all, we had to believe in them.

Raimon's kickoff began with the team as determined as when the game began, with the score not causing them to falter. However, Matsukaze soon lost the ball after being shot with a defender's spiral ball of pressurized air hissatsu: Air Bullet. The defender passed it to the ever obvious Kurosaki who after being marked by a player passed it to Tsutsumi, a red haired forward who quickly lost the ball to Raimon's pink, pigtailed played Kirino, who used his hissatsu, The Mist, which sent out a deep mist to confuse the player while he snuck in and stole the ball.

Kirino made a long past to Nishiki, a tall guy with a really long ponytail, passed it to Kurama who then passed it Tsurugi. When 2 defenders came after Tsurugi, he made a no-look pass to Nishiki, who made his way up the field. With ball in hand, well feet, he brought out the classic black flames that would end up revealing his keshin, Sengoku Bushin Musashi (Sengoku War God Musashi.) As autumn leaves blew by the scenery, the samurai spirit clad in armor wielding twin swords slashed the ball with it's now red swords as Nishiki hit it the ball up for a final kick with a X-shaped final slash with his hissatsu, "Bushin Renzan! (War God Multi-Slash)

Seidouzan's keeper tried stopping it with his hissatsu: Shoot Break, which involved hitting it multiple times with both his hands and legs, to no avail as it slashed right past him, tying the score and putting me back in a cheery mood. It was once again tied, keshin-made goal for keshin-made goal, and the chances for Raimon's victory where once again visible as the whistle for half time was blown.

As the teams returned to the locker rooms for half-time and Kakuma Oushou talked about the match so far, I sank down into the couch now that the suspense was paused for a second. The score for half-time was 2-2, a tie. Tai finally emerged from his chance and sat up straight.

"It looks like we've got a good game going on here," he finally said.

"You know it is!" I joined in. "All that's left is to take the lead in the second half and Raimon wins!"

"We'll just see about that," Archeri added. "There's still an entire half left."

Tai finally got up from his seat.

"In any case, I'm hungry. You guys got any chips or something?" he asked, already headed toward our kitchen.

"Hey, don't just barge in there!" I yelled at him.

"Dude, I've been doing this for years now. I think it'll be okay."

"You can't argue with him there," Archeri piped in.

While Tai was raiding our kitchen for anything he deemed snack-worthy, I thought over the game. The TV was currently going into its in-depth analysis mode of halftime. Raimon was fighting evenly with Seidouzan, point for point. If their past efforts were any indication, they would be able to turn it around by the end.

"What the heck is wrong with you people?" Tai asked returning from the kitchen with a bag of chips. "You got chips, but you don't have salsa? I mean, seriously?!"

"Get your own salsa!" I yelled back at him.

"As a matter of fact, I will." He got up and headed out the door.

"Where are you going?" Archeri asked.

"My place. We actually stock up on important things like salsa," Tai responded. "Don't worry, nothing has changed in the year you've been gone, I still live next door."

As Tai left to get his precious salsa, Archeri continued to talk about the game.

"Well, your Raimon team is doing impressive," she began. "It's been a while since I've seen a game this enjoyable."

I gave her a small smirk. She was right, no doubt about that. This game had both teams giving it their all. It truly was a match worthy of being the final.

"However," she started again. "It's only beginning it seems." She smiled and motioned me to look back on the screen.

I turned my head towards the screen and saw as Armano Mikado Stadium slowly grew as it reached the sky. I heard a whistle from behind me as it finished its transformation.

"Fancy," Tai said. "I wonder how many tax dollars went into that."

I looked over at Tai as he walked in to our kitchen. He had the previously mentioned salsa in his hand. He poured it into a bowl and brought back to the couch as he sat down in the same spot he was in. As half-time was finishing he and Archeri started eating the chips.

"E-Excuse me!" Kakuma Oushou's voice brought our faces back towards the screen. We will have a change in players. Seidouzan is changing _all_ its players and its coach!"

"Whoa," I screamed. "That's an illegal action! Where's the ref?"

Tai closed his eyes, "Explanation coming in 3, 2, 1…"

"This is possible due to the Fifth Law that allows Fifth Sector to change the rules!" was Kakuma Oushou answering my outburst. I looked over at Archeri in anger.

"You knew about this didn't you? They brought in a completely different team for this! What do you-"

"I had no idea," Archeri interrupted me. Her eyes had been wide open due to shock. "Remember, I haven't been able to get in touch with Fifth Sector all week."

"Now the match truly begins," came Tai's voice followed by a crunch of chips. He swallowed and returned into his game-watching trance.

Soon after, we got the name of the coach, Senguuji Daigo, and the lineup, with Captain Senguuji Yamato being the goalkeeper. All the players, except for the goalie, had similar hair color in gray. Along with that, all the players were ones who have never played in any official matches before. With none of us truly aware of what was going on, we just watched speechless.

The kickoff for the second half was for reborn-Seidouzan. I craned my head closer to see what this new team was capable of. My mouth dropped when I saw them _pass_ the ball into Raimon territory. After getting over the shock of this play, Raimon began to advance back up the field. However, no one was expecting the 4 forwards of Seidouzan to emit those purple flames from the backs. All four keshins revealed a soldier decked in white armor.

"Seihei Pawn (Elite Soldier Pawn)!" screamed all 4 forwards.

The three of us each showed our own way of shock. My mouth dropped again and I was speechless. Archeri gasped, with her eyes growing. Lastly, Tai was zapped out of his trance long enough for him to grab some more chips to eat.

The ball was taken and the onslaught began with a keshin shoot straight for Raimon's goal. Goalie Sangoku leaped into the air and spun before throwing his hands down once again summoning the stone wall, Fence of Gaia. It barely deflected it back towards them with another one of the forwards kicking it right back to Sangoku. He brought out a second Fence of Gaia, although this time the power of the two canceled each other out instead of one winning, with the ball blown back to another forward and Sangoku into the goal he was desperately defending.

With the third keshin shoot, with Sangoku without time to get back into action, the large defender with long purple hair and goggles on his chin, Amagi, brought out his hissatsu, Atlantis Wall. Amagi's prehistoric looking wall was smashed to bits with him blown back as well. However, the weakened ball punched out by the now ready Sangoku. The final forward kicked the flying ball once last time with Sangoku blocking it with his body and throwing his falling form into the goalpost in order to keep the ball from going in with him. Sangoku, now injured, left and blue headband wearing goalie Nishizono Shinsuke came in his place. Although really short, this brown rabbit ear haired first-year had a giant keshin as proven in the last match and hopefully could keep these guys from scoring.

"Th-This is overkill!" I stammered. "How is Raimon going to win against these monsters?"

"Simple, they don't" was Archeri's response. Although in the same fashion as when she was bragging, her face showed she was still shocked at the skill the new Seidouzan was showing.

With the game paused for the switch, Tai returned to the world of the living and ate some chips with his precious salsa, saying, "Well, this game just got better." With that, he returned to his trance.

Reborn-Seidouzan was next with a corner kick, which was eventually stolen by Raimon. They started advancing up the field in great strides, avoiding the keshin-wielding forwards at all costs.

"Well, they're avoiding the front line of power," I said simply.

The ball eventually reached Captain Matsukaze Tenma who blew past the final defender with his trademark hissatsu Soyokaze Step (Zephyr Step). With that defender flying off behind him, he was one-on-one with the goalie.

"Go for it!" I screamed.

Matsukaze grew purple wings which eventually grew to an entire keshin. The spirit had a long mane of red hair, a six pack, hero-like mask, and ginormous wings.

"Majin Pegasus Arc (Demon God Pegasus Arc)!" was Tenma's cry as he shouted out the beast's name. He shot the ball with all his might backed by his keshin's power.

Senguuji Yamato was unfazed and brought out his out keshin, a four-armed, caped spirit with a cross on its face, "Kenou Kingburn (Wise Sovereign Kingburn)!" Matsukaze was forced to look in shock as the keshin's hissatsu, King Fire, ending up sending four streams of fire from each of its arms until the ball turned into ashes.

With the ball in his hands, Senguuji Yamato gave the signal and purple fire erupted from the back of all of Seidouzan's players. Joining the four Pawns in the front and Kingburn in the back were a Guardian Tower Rook, Witch Queen Lydia, two Demon Prime Minister Bishops, and two Iron Horse Warrior Knights. With faces just as shocked as Raimon's I stood up and yelled, "What the heck is that?"

"That, my friend is a chess board," Tai spoke up, once again out of his trance. He was less surprised then Archeri and I were, he probably predicted this. "Look closely, every keshin is a chess piece, and Seidouzan is planning to corner Raimon into checkmate."

I looked and saw the resemblance. Every keshin resembled the chess piece their name suggested. Rook and Queen were in the back, Bishops and Knights in the middle, and finally Pawns up in front.

"Now, _this_ is overkill!" I exclaimed.

"For once, I agree with you," was the surprising response from my sister. Tai nodded in agreement.

Seidouzan used their keshin's power to shoot their way past all of Raimon's players by using shoots as passes, with Kurama taking an enormous hit protecting Matsukaze. This onslaught reached one of the Pawn-wielding forwards who shot it at goalie Nishizono. He brought out his giant keshin, Gouseishin Titanius (Planet Guardian God Titanius), a gold and blue monster with a mane of purple hair and circular bars on its back. However, the giant couldn't take the shot, and with that, the score became 3-2, Seidouzan in the lead.

As Raimon changed their second injured player Kurama with Kageyama Hikaru, we all talked about the extreme situation.

"This isn't soccer anymore! It's just a smack down of everyone in Raimon!" I cried. "Archeri, how could you not know of an army of keshin users?"

"I just did what I was told when I was there!" she yelled back. "I didn't go snooping around!"

"Well, I surprised neither of you suspected it," Tai yawned.

"What do you mean?" we siblings replied simultaneously.

"This is the final match. What's more, they subbed a team that was playing equally at half-time," he began. "The idea of having a team of this caliber to take out the resisting team was probably inevitable for Raimon's journey."

He had a point. Up 'til now, Raimon has been fighting teams from Fifth Sector with only several keshins. If they were to take down the organization as a whole, it would be expected that the final team would be powerful to this kind of extent.

"In any case, it's still way too much." I said.

"Maybe, Taiso, maybe," Tai shrugged, "Anywho, we can't really do anything it this situation except sit back and watch."

I gritted my teeth and sat myself down. When he was right, he was right. There wasn't anything we could except watch and hope. Raimon could pull through this, I knew they could. They needed to, for all of us across the country.

Raimon's kickoff resulted in them quickly losing the ball thanks to Seidouzan's generous overuse of their keshins. As one of the Pawns was running up, Raimon answered with their ace striker, Tsurugi Kyousuke releasing his keshin: Kensei Lancelot (Sword Saint Lancelot). It was a knight in shining armor with a sword and shield versus an unarmed soldier in armor. Lancelot won the duel, but the ball spun out of Tsurugi's possession, and another Seidouzan player took it and released their keshin.

This time, Nishiki brought out Sengoku Bushin Musashi to take on his Bishop. Musashi won, although the ball once again spun out of control. The match continued at this pace where keshins would take on keshins until one gave out. Unfortunately for Raimon, they only had 4 keshin users to Seidouzan's 11, and on top of that, one of Raimon's keshin users was stuck back guarding the goal.

"Raimon can't hold this up forever," Archeri stated. "They're going to eventually wear themselves out."

"Wait a second," I shouted. "If they are wearing out, so is Seidouzan! Raimon's fighting equal-"

"Using a keshin takes up a ton of energy, Taiso," interrupted Tai. "Take it from Archeri and I, we know."

"I know that, but just because they have more keshins doesn't mean they'll win!"

"If Raimon continues this tactic, it will," Archeri answered this time. "Eventually, the 3 keshin users from Raimon won't be able to fight back, and this is just wearing them out."

"So, what you're saying is, unless Raimon finds a way to fight back without relying on their keshins," I started

"They're screwed," Tai finished. "There's no easy way to do it. Right now, they're walking down a slippery slope, and they're about to slip."

I looked at Tai's serious expression and then looked back at the TV. He wasn't being sarcastic or kidding. Tai, although skeptical of Raimon's victory since the beginning of their "revolution," genuinely wanted them to win in the end, but if he was worried, then things were really bad. I watched as Raimon kept with their plan.

'You guys gotta pull through!' I thought. 'Find another tactic, just don't tire yourself out!"

I realized that Tai and Archeri were right as Tsurugi's keshin hissatsu, Lost Angel, was stopped by King Fire. Lost Angel hadn't failed the entire tournament. After that, things started going downhill. Seidouzan was continuously bringing out keshins and shooting at Raimon with the 3 keshin users, Matsukaze, Tsurugi, Nishiki, and Nishizono, keeping them from widening the score by 2.

What I dreaded finally happened after a tough save with Matsukaze and Shinsuke both using their keshins to stop a single shot. On the next throw-in, Tsurugi and Nishiki finally hit their limits of how many times they could bring out their keshins and were overwhelmed by Seidouzan. Matsukaze was barely able to stop them as well. Soon, the defense was worn out too, using their bodies as shields to block it. The ball came dangerously close to scoring several times, just hitting the goalpost. With everyone but Matsukaze on the floor due to fatigue, Senguuji left the goal and brought out his keshin and shot it. It broke through Matsukaze's already weakened keshin and Nishizono reached his limit too with his keshin retracted as soon as he sent it out.

"4…2," I muttered. There was a two point difference and Raimon was in ruins. Matsukaze was on the ground, crying. I had no one to reassure me here, my company was my enemy, Archeri, and the lazy ass who doesn't care that much. I shut my eyes in anger. They were so close! Why now? WHY?

"Don't count your chickens, dude. Just watch."

I opened my eyes and looked where the sound led. TAI? The one who usually sees the worst in our situation? He was smiling at the screen. I looked up, but all I saw was Matsukaze on his knees with tears in his eyes looking up.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him. "What's so different?"

"Who's he looking at?"

I focused where Matsukaze gaze was and saw a small image of someone on the top right of the screen. I squinted and saw who it was. It was the previous Captain, Shindou Takuto. The one person who inspired me to take charge of this team and help lift it from where it was. I haven't succeeded in it yet, but that guy inspired me to start. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it helped him get up.

At that moment Raimon had to take a small time out to see if there were any injuries on the now exhausted team. While they were there, the atmosphere around them started to change. I could tell the team was rallying under the situation. I saw this and remembered why I believed in Raimon this entire tournament.

"This Raimon you're so enthusiastic about isn't half bad, little bro," Archeri said, not looking away from the screen. She wasn't being sarcastic or menacing. She actually sounded genuinely impressed. I didn't say anything and just nodded. The match was continuing.

The match continued the exact way it left off: with Seidouzan smashing Raimon with their keshins. However, this time around, Raimon always got up every single time right after to keep their momentum going. When the ball was high in the air above the goal, Nishizono pulled through by jumping high enough to punch it out of the way. When Seidouzan shot a ball, all 4 of the defense used their entire bodies to block the ball. The team had become one. With a pass from the back of the defense, the ball ended up in the front with the forwards in an instant, with Seidouzan not getting a chance to even touch them.

Nishiki and Kageyama were up front with ball before both being knocked high in the air by the final line of defense's keshins. When it seemed like the drive was over, Nishiki helped launch Kageyama higher into the air so he could shoot the ball from the air. With a scream, Kageyama and the ball disappeared in a purple vortex until they returned when he shot it. This hissatsu, Extend Zone broke past the final two keshins and remained high in the sky. It may have lost all its power, but it proved Raimon could make it. To answer this play, both Matsukaze and Tsurugi ran up to the ball and prepared to finally make their own shot on Seidouzan's impenetrable goalie.

As Senguuji prepared his keshin for the shot, Matsukaze and Tsurugi both leaped into the air spinning quickly to reach the ball. As they spun, fire enveloped them and I saw the technique I've only seen one other time, on a professional soccer match. They shot the ball together and I was sure it was that move.

"FIRE TORNADO DOUBLE DRIVE!"

This fireball of a shot head straight for goalkeeper Senguuji Yamato who confidently used his keshin hissatsu: King Fire, as his defense against it. However, the power of the shot was proven when he was starting to get pushed back. Everyone on Raimon's team yelled for it to go in, and if granting their wish, a keshin was overpowered by a hissatsu.

"GOAL! 3-4! Raimon takes a point back!" Kakuma Oushou's voice boomed through the TV's speakers.

"Amazing. A keshin has been overpowered by a hissatsu?" Archeri said very softly. It was once thought that no hissatsu had a chance against a keshin, but we saw it happen right here!

As Kakuma Oushou continued talking about how this move has only been used by _the_ Gouenji Shuuya only once as a national player, I remembered how this was the second time his moves were shown in this match. That, plus the fact that Ishido Shuuji was Gouenji, add the factor that Raimon did this, equaled that he must have taught them, which meant…

He was for this revolution all along! I was about to mention it to Archeri and Tai, but seeing their faces, both intently watching, I knew they had already figured it out. I got up in happiness and cheered.

"All right!" I screamed. "The comeback begins here!"

As the celebration was finishing up, Tai closed his eyes and got up.

"This match is over," he said simply.

"What do you mean, Raimon can still catch up!" I yelled at him. "It's only a point now, plus the rhythm is on their side now!" How could he think Raimon was done when they just scored that major point?

"That's what I meant. This match is over. Raimon has won," he said as he took the now empty chips and salsa to the sink to rinse them. I gave him a confused look and went back to the game.

It turns out that he was right because the rest of the match went by really fast. Raimon time and time again defeated keshins using hissatsu and their never say die attitude and scored once more, tying, using Nishiki's Denrai Houtou (Hereditary Treasured Sword). Both Tai and Archeri argued that this goal in particular was really a bit too convenient and started calling it out. I ignored them and continued to watch. Raimon quickly followed up and used a chain shoot combining Tsurugi's Death Drop G3 and Matsukaze's Shin Mach Wind. This hurricane like combination crashed once more through Seidouzan's goalkeeper and with that turnaround, the final whistle blew and the match was over.

"They won," I began, still in shock. "They really won!"

"Seems that way," Tai said, returning from the kitchen with another bag of chips in his hands.

"I told you they'd win," I yelled at him. "It's finally happened! Real soccer is back!" I looked back at Archeri, still on the couch, who had a vacant expression on her face.

"Oi, 'Cheri," Tai yelled out to her.

"Yeah, here to rub it in my face?" she snapped back.

"No, Taiso's here for that. He's rubbing it in mine, too."

"You've doubted them the entire tournament!" I yelled back at him.

"Chill man, it's not like _we_ won or anything."

"We will next year! All we need is some practice! We'll be the team on that stage someday!"

"Your enthusiasm is annoying sometimes, you know that," Tai told me before turning back to Archeri. "Hey, you okay?"

I looked at my arch-nemesis whose face was being hidden. For once, I looked at my sister with worry instead of disdain. She wiped her eyes with her arm before looking back at us with a small grin.

"I'm fine. Now give me some of those chips."

Tai laughed as we all sat down. Unlike during the game where we were all 100% focused on what was going on, during the awards ceremony and as Armano Mikado Stadium finally descended back to its original shape we all slouched down into the couches, just watching everything unfold.

With all the match stuff complete, the results of the Holy Emperor election were revealed and with Raimon's victory, Hibiki Seigou came out on top. Hibiki's inaugural speech was very quick and to the point. He explained how soccer wasn't an equal sport, and winning was based on the players' desire to win and how much effort they put into it. He ended his speech with the disbandment of Fifth Sector and freeing all soccer players to play as they like once more. With the game over and Raimon's victory, Fifth Sector was no more and real soccer returned!

"Well, that was a spectacle, wouldn't you say?" Tai spoke up as we were silent as the TV went on.

"It sure was!" I replied, turning off the TV. "You guys have to agree that it was an amazing match, though!"

"It actually was a great match," Archeri said as she got up. "Best match that I've seen in quite a while." She smiled before looking down at her feet.

"So, 'Cheri, what are you going to do now," Tai asked. "With Fifth Sector gone and no mission to complete, where do you continue?"

"Truth be told," she began. "I really don't know. I'll call the organization tomorrow and they'll probably give us all the details." She looked rather optimistic in a cloudy situation without a clear answer.

I spoke up, "Well Tai, with this game over, it's time for us to get in gear as well, wouldn't you say? Let's call the team together and celebrate!"

"Hell no. Not today. It's like 10 at night, I'm going home to rest and we can continue your celebration tomorrow."

"It's _our_ celebration," I clarified for him. "It's a victory for all soccer teams across the country!"

"Yeah, yeah, just save your enthusiasm for tomorrow, 'kay?" he said as he made his way to the door. "I'll see ya tomorrow. Night Tai, night 'Cheri!" With that he left our apartment and it was just Archeri and I.

"Well, I guess I'm going to sleep too," Archeri said, breaking the silence. "Good night Taiso." She walked over to her room as I stood there.

"Night sis," I said. I was too happy to even start an argument or to rub it in her SEED face. Real soccer was finally back! I sat on the couch and replayed the game in my head, every hissatsu, every keshin, every little play that happened that gave us the great game we saw. I ended up staying there all night until I fell asleep recounting the match that would change everything.

The last thing I remember thinking about before I went to sleep was:

'Raimon has done it, now it's our turn.'

**With that, Chapter 3 comes to a close. Next chapter we return to Tai's POV and the plot should finally be getting underway. What will Archeri do with her mission over and Fifth Sector disbanded? How will the team start up with real soccer returned? Find out next time! Thanks for reading and review!**


	5. The Path of Heroes

**A/N: Chapter 4-This is where the true plot of this story begins. Raimon has won Holy road and real soccer has finally returned, so how will Hikari Jr. do with their newfound freedom? What is the fate of the disbanded Fifth Sector SEED's like Archeri? What is the Hikari Eleven's true adventure and when is it beginning? Enough stalling, here it is, Chapter 4-Read and Review!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Inazuma Eleven, GO, Chrono Stone, or Galaxy**

**Tai's POV-Chapter 4: The Path of Heroes**

_Previously on Path of Heroes, my buddy Taiso's sis Archeri became part of the team and I was forced to be part of his 'keep her from doing anything evil by siding with me for everything' crackerjack plan. Fortunately, 'Cheri wasn't up to any nefarious deeds and I didn't have to do much to meet with his demands. It all led up to the Holy Road finals where Raimon was facing Seidouzan with the chance of returning real soccer on the line. So, after almost an hour of us watching the first half with both teams neck and neck, I realize these guys don't have any salsa to go with the chips! It was completely crazy! Oh, and there was that small fact that the other team completely cheated by switching out the entire team during halftime but that's a petty crime when compared to the fact that Taiso was lacking in the salsa department. In the end, Raimon won, Taiso got his real soccer back, and I got my salsa. Now I'm just waiting for the aftermath of this match to get to Taiso's head and his delusions of grandeur of us becoming the next strongest team to happen. It should happen right about…_

"TAI, WAKE UP!" is what I had to wake up to. Taiso was in my room, yelling in my ear at 9:00 in the morning. On a Saturday no less! When your best friend is an obsessive freak like him, you're not allowed to sleep. The only reason I got until 9 is because he had to get over here to wake me up and the fact that it's a Saturday. If I stayed over his place, I'd been up for like 2 hours now. It's a good thing we're neighbors so I can always have an excuse against staying over his place or him staying over here.

"Dude, it's 9 in the morning on a Saturday," I grumbled. "Let me sleep."

"No can do," he said. "I already called everyone and told them to meet us at school in an hour. Now, GET UP!"

"How many answered?"

"How many what?"

"How many answered your phone call?"

"One, but I'm sure everyone will be there."

"Was it Shizen?"

"Yeah, what does it matter?"

"He's the only one that would be awake this time in the morning, besides you. Probably on one of his 'nature walks' or something."

"And he's a perfect example of what we should be doing every day!"

"Whatever, I'll get up," I said, finally opening my eyes. "Just get off my back." I knew from past experience that he wouldn't go away and I wouldn't get my free sleep. The haziness from just getting up started to fade and I clearly saw my friend leaning over me angry. It was Saturday, so instead of his school uniform he wore a light blue shirt with a long sleeve white button down shirt, fully buttoned with cuffs, and jeans. Jeez, even on a Saturday, he's dressed to impress. So I got up, put on a red t-shirt, blue short-sleeve button down shirt, not buttoned, and jeans. Yeah, we have a similar style of dressing, but the act of actually buttoning down his shirt is what sets us apart.

I went to brush my teeth as he stood outside my bathroom counting the minutes on his phone. I finished getting ready by leaving my hair in the usual mess it is and was pulled out of my house as my mother waved at us.

"Dude, what about breakfast?" I asked.

"Save it, we're gonna be late," he said, dragging my arm toward the elevator at the end of the hall.

He threw me into the elevator before stepping in and pressing the lobby button. Damn, it's the second time this week I'm thrown into this thing on my ass. I dusted myself off as we reached the ground floor. As we began our way out of the apartment building, we were ambushed.

"Hey guys, what's up?" A girl with nicely combed blonde hair, a pink shirt and a Hawaiian blue shirt with a flame patterned collar decorated with colorful flowers all over wrapped her arms over our shoulders and pulled us into a hug. I looked up and saw a familiar face and a familiar flower in her hair.

"Archeri?!" "'Cheri?!"

"That's my name don't wear it out," she said, breaking out into laughter. I looked over to Taiso who had the angry veins popping in his head and then looked away when I realized I had a slight blush on my face. I tried to hide my blush thinking, 'Taiso didn't notice, Taiso didn't notice, Taiso didn't notice…'

My worries were cleared when Taiso pulled out of the 'hug,' pointed at Archeri and screamed, "What are you doing?"

She pulled her arm back from around my neck, smiled and said, "I heard the entire team was going to meet at school, so I'm coming with you guys!"

Taiso shook his head and yelled, "You joined the team as a SEED from Fifth Sector! Shouldn't you be headed back from where you came or something?"

She laughed and said, "I got a text this morning from the Sector's main office telling all the SEED's to return to whatever school they went to before they joined up with Fifth Sector. You _do_ remember I was part of this school before I left, right?"

This is great! Archeri's back to being my best friend's nice and pretty older sister who I remembered falling for.

"Wait a minute," Taiso broke in. "Aren't any of you SEED's going to try and bring back Fifth Sector? That's your real mission, right?"

"Please," Archeri rolled her eyes. "You think I'd try to bring back a disbanded organization. That's way too much work."

I'm in love.

"Anyway," she said, smiling once more. "Now we're back to how it used to be, my brother, his friend, and me: playing soccer together! Just like old times!" With that she started laughing and grabbed both of us and wrapped her arms around our shoulders once again. Both our faces grew red, mine because of obvious reasons and Taiso in just angry annoyance. Still, I was glad 'Cheri took a complete 180 with Fifth Sector's downfall and reverted back to her previous self. I saw her return as the nice older sister of my best friend while Taiso continued to see her as his arch-enemy. Taiso always believed she was putting up a nice façade to hide her evil intentions but I think he was just paranoid.

After our awkward "reunion," we continued to the school for our team meeting. Along the way 'Cheri tried making conversation with her brother who answered with simple one-worded responses, obviously still ticked off. I decided to let them slowly work out their own problems and walked behind the duo for the trip there.

Upon arriving, a small grin crept onto my face as I looked at the turnout. Only Shizen was there, meditating under a tree. Although I am impressed that he got here before us, there was only him there.

"Don't. Say. A. Word," was Taiso's reaction to this through gritted teeth.

"Fine, I won't say 'I told you so.'" I started, but finished, "but I told you so."

So with almost no one here, we had only one option: wait. I laid down in the shade of the same tree Shizen was meditating under and tried to catch up on my sleep. Taiso started pacing back and forth, every couple seconds checking his phone to see if anyone had replied to his message. Shizen and Archeri took to the field and practiced a bit. Their practice was relatively simple and calm with Archeri just shooting at him without any need for hissatsu techniques to be flying all around the place. I checked my phone for the time: 10:00 AM. 'We'll be stuck here for a while if this keeps up," I thought to myself.

I was half-right about that hunch. At around 10:30, the rest of the team started answering Taiso's message, either because they just got up or never bothered to pick up their phones yet. It was another 30 minutes before everyone started arriving, and by 11, everyone was present and I got up for whatever was the reason I was dragged here. Taiso found a small crate and stood atop it like a pedestal. 'Great," I thought. 'Another speech.' He cleared his voice and the entire team turned to face him.

"Thank you all for coming here this morning," he began. "As most of you are aware, last night's final match of the Holy Road ended in Raimon's victory and the disbandment of Fifth Sector."

There was a small bit of cheering from the enormous crowd of 10 people.

I leaned over and said, "Stop being so formal. It's just us." He needs to loosen up.

Thankfully, he did, and his next declaration was, "Are you guys ready to play real soccer from now on?"

The reaction from our team was a lot better received this time and it loosened up Taiso enough so that the rest of his speech would go through smoothly. He spoke about how Raimon made their way from the bottom all the way to the top, even though they were the runners-up from last year's competition, so his rag to riches story isn't completely true. In short, he got the team fired up to practice more in order for us to actually be a powerful team in the future.

"With newfound freedom, let's play soccer to the fullest from now on!" he ended.

With Tai's speech done, most of the team went their separate ways. It was a Saturday, so I can't blame them for not wanting to practice right at this second. I mean, I didn't want to do it. Unfortunately, Taiso and I are kind of a package deal and where he goes, I get dragged. So, the only ones left were Taiso, Archeri, Shizen, Chryde, and myself.

Our practice went for a couple hours with Shizen taking care of the goal and Chryde and I preventing Taiso and his sister from scoring. Of course I didn't really try too hard because there wasn't any real reason to do so, so Chryde did most of the work. However, he didn't have to work too hard because the two siblings were completely out of sync. Taiso couldn't reach a single one of Archeri's passes and vice-versa. Was it a difference in skill level or just distrust in each other?

"Run faster, Taiso! I know you can reach that," Archeri yelled after sending a long pass.

"Are you nuts? I don't have super speed, you know!" was our Captain's reply.

This back and forth went on until around lunchtime. Archeri left us since she promised some upperclassmen she knew before leaving last year that she'd catch up with them. Shizen and Chryde both went out for lunch while Taiso wanted to keep practicing, so I had no choice but to stay here. And then there were two. With Shizen gone, Taiso just kept shooting at the goal. I wasn't dressed for actual practice and neither was he, so I hoped he'd stop soon. I noticed most of his shots ended up missing the goal entirely or hitting the goalposts, so I realized he was a bit out of it. After another half-hour, I was finally able to get him to stop.

As a completely breathless Taiso took a break to cool off, I started thinking of where to go for the rest of the day.

"All right man, we got the rest of the day to do what we want," I began. "I say lunch is the first thing on our list, so where you wanna go?"

"I…don't…care," was his exhausted reply.

"Well, since you're exhausted and I don't feel like walking that much, we'll go to that place a couple blocks from here and then we'll decide what we'll do, 'kay?"

"…sure."

So we went to this place, (I didn't care to remember the name) and we got some lunch. Taiso was a lot more tired than I thought because he downed over 5 glasses of water before we even got our food. It didn't make sense because even though we practiced more than everyone else, we barely did anything close to our daily training and he never was this thirsty. I tried to make casual small talk but Taiso wasn't in a real talking mood. After eating and paying, we still were undecided on where to go so we just walked along the sidewalk with no clear direction in mind.

"All right, man," I said, "You've had time to cool down and had lunch, so where should we go? We're burning daylight here!"

He looked at me with bored eyes, "Why are you so active?"

"Why are you so tired?"

"I asked you first."

"It's 'cause I don't have to do any homework this entire weekend. I finally get a break!"

"It's not like you do any work in the first place,"

"Shut up! What's got you in the dumps, anyway? Wasn't a couple hours ago where you were the center of the team's happiness?"

Our back and forth stopped when he looked up and wondered before slowly saying, "Do you think my position as Captain is in jeopardy?"

Now this was a shocker. We both stopped walking to talk this over. Taiso, the one who rallies the team with his speeches, is unsure of his position as Captain? "What brought this up?" I asked.

"It's just that Archeri is back, and before she left, she was Captain of our team," he explained. "So, am I supposed to give it back or something?"

"Well, there isn't any law that says you have to transition it back," I said. "Besides, she hasn't mentioned anything about wanting it back, so unless she says anything, I guess she approves of you keeping the reigns."

"Still, she has the most skill on the team!" he exclaimed. "Even you have a keshin, and I don't! Am I fit to be Captain while lacking the power that even the laziest member of the team has?"

"Okay, first of all: insulted," I told him. "Second of all: having a keshin doesn't give you god-like powers. You saw the final too, right? Raimon won without having to use any keshins against a team comprised of keshin users."

His attitude brightened after remembering the accounts of the game that happened last night. He stood up straighter and said, "Thanks man. I needed that."

"Whatever," I said. "Now what are we going to do, we got 4 hours to kill before we got to get home."

"We can trai-"

"No." I cut him off. "We've done enough of that crap for one day. Everyone else is enjoying their Saturday and I want to do the same."

"So you want to go out somewhere? How about the mall?"

"Too far."

"There's an arcade by Tetsu's place. I can call him and some others and we can hang out there."

"Eh, too much work. Maybe tomorrow."

"Well, what do you propose we do?"

I looked over the other side of the road and saw a field with goals and a hill of grass right next to it. "You know what," I told him. "You can practice, and I'll just lay back and chill for the day. How's that?"

He gave me a skeptical look before saying, "Fine, just don't complain about not doing anything fun, because I offered."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," I said finding some shade underneath a tree. I lie down and shut my eyes, soon drifting off to a deep sleep.

After several hours, I awoke easy and saw Taiso on the field, still practicing on the field. However, something was off about him. Why was he wearing the team's unifor-wait a minute. Did he ditch me? He just left me here, completely vulnerable to anyone passing by, so he could go home and change into his uniform? I wasn't about to take this lying down, so I sat up. Hey, no need to stand up, right?

"Hey, Taiso!" I yelled as he looked over confused. "What the hell, man? You ditched me and left me here all alone? What if I was mugged or something?"

His face became more confused than it was already. "What are you talking about? I had Archeri look after you. Don't you see her right there?" He pointed to the tree behind me.

I looked behind me and saw a smiling Archeri sitting atop one of the tree's branches saying, "Hey, what's up, sleepyhead?"

"Oh, shi-"I said as I scrambled to get up, blushing, but tripped and ending rolling down the hill until I landed on the field my friend was practicing on. Well, aren't I a graceful one? "When did this happen?" I yelled.

Archeri hopped down and said, "I got back from meeting up with my friends about an hour ago. While heading back home, Taiso asked if I could watch you while he changed into something better suited for practice."

So she's been watching me sleep for an entire hour? I couldn't hold back the reddening of my face. I got to my feet and changed the subject, "What time is it?"

"It's around 8:30," Archeri said with a grin. "We should all start headed home. Taiso, let's go!"

He nodded and picked up the ball, mumbling something about her being annoying or something. The three of us headed towards our apartment building and we finally parted as we reached our separate apartments. I entered and greeted my mom, "Hey Mom, I'm back."

"Welcome home," she called. "How was your day? Dinner's almost ready, so wash up and we can talk."

So, I washed up, ate dinner and watched some TV for about an hour before I decided to go to sleep and thus was my Saturday.

There were two things wrong with Sunday morning. One, I got up on my own. Two, Taiso wasn't standing over me, yelling at me that I should get up. I looked at my bedside clock: 2:00 PM. I got to sleep in?! I looked up and thanked the gods, wondering what I did to deserve something so great. With Taiso waking me up way too early almost every day since I've known him, I almost forgot the feeling of getting to sleep in on a weekend. I got ready and walked into the living room. Mom left a note saying she was going out shopping for groceries and would come back soon. Whether it was 8 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon, I still felt like I needed some breakfast and got a bowl of cereal and ate that before remembering I was missing one annoying friend.

Where was he? I called his house phone to hear his dad say both he and Archeri weren't home since 10 that morning, Archeri saying she was going to catch up with some more of her friends and Taiso saying he was just going out. As much as I enjoy getting to sleep in, the fact that he left without even telling me where he was going annoyed me a bit. I called my Mom and told her I was going out, and went out to look for him. Now where does one look for an obsessive perfectionist. I tried the school field and couldn't find him, oddly enough. We didn't have any homework for Monday so he obviously couldn't be at the library doing work since he wasn't home. While walking aimlessly, I had only one last guess to where he was.

I took my time finding my way to the field we were at yesterday as I saw my friend practicing dribbling around some cones before shooting at the goal. Based on marks on the goal, it seemed like he was shooting some pretty powerful shots, but missed a majority of them. He started another round, dribbling through the cones perfectly, and then spun twice before shooting the ball. The ball glowed red for a second before hitting the right bar of the goal post before bouncing off toward my direction.

I caught it and yelled, "Do you do anything besides practice?"

"Do you do anything besides sleep?" Touché.

"So, how long have you been out here," I asked him.

"Not too long, I got here around 11," was his casual response.

"Eleven?! You've been out here for 3 hours straight? Practicing alone?" I asked him incredulously.

He gave me a look that said 'What?' and said, "Well, yeah with the water breaks every half hour or so. Why?"

"I should ask you why," I told him. "It's a Sunday. Do you ever take a break?"

"Not this again," he groaned. "Can't you just let me practice in peace?"

"No can do my friend," I said. "Unfortunately, the gods have me paired up with you and we're now like a package deal, and this part of the package doesn't feel like practicing every free second he has. Besides, you practiced all day yesterday."

"Fine. What do you propose we do then?"

"Why don't you let me worry about that while you change into something else?"

So, we walked back to his apartment so he could change while I thought of some non-exhausting things to do for the day. When he came out we went over to the arcade that he mentioned yesterday. We played there until Taiso got mad at me whipping his ass at every game we played. What can I say? I know my way around a joystick. I wanted to go see a movie and he suggested we invite some guys from the team and I thought through our options.

Archeri was obviously not a good choice because A: She was busy most of today, B: I end up caving in and agreeing with whatever she chooses, and C: a movie with those siblings is never good because of the war Taiso will eventually start either about which movie to see or the meaning of the movie itself. Shizen would watch almost anything but would probably lean towards something with a message about the environment and stuff. Besides, he's a pain to go to the movies with since he's real strict on us picking up our trash. Chryde is a bit of a mystery. Yeah, I know him better than most people, but unless you talk him for a long period of time, you don't know much about him. Yasashi probably knows the most about him since he's always trying to be nice to everyone. This brings us to Yasashi, who WILL agree to anything we choose. However, like Taiso and me, he's almost always a two for one deal with his cousin Arashi, who is always a vote for a disaster movie. Tetsu is usually at the gym and Kagaku is probably doing some extra credit work. Lastly, Shio and Hayai both are pretty agreeable, but are complete opposites, with Shio okay with anything laid back while Hayai needs the movie to be fast paced and grabbing his attention and pulling him through the entire thing.

So, I decided to call Chryde, Yasashi, and Shio, the three most agreeable of the bunch. Of course, Arashi ended up coming too, by Yasashi's request. Without much discussion, we chose some random action movie whose plot wasn't all too interesting and I forgot about it within an hour later. Thanks to theater snacks, we were able to knock lunch off our list of things to as well, so two birds, one stone. Since I was out of ideas, Taiso recommended we go to his place and just watch some TV. At least he's not recommending we practice. However, I found out his real reason when we ended up watching some coverage on Raimon's victory. Afterwards, it was already pretty late so I went to my own place next door and went to sleep after Taiso kicked me out since he wanted to get his sleep because he's all about getting enough sleep for staying awake at school. All in all, it was a pretty good end to a relaxing weekend. If I knew it would be the last one I'd have for a while, I would have stretched it out longer.

The entire week after Raimon's victory at the Holy Road finals starting Monday was incredibly tiring. Taiso went back to waking me up incredibly early every day. School continued as it usually did, as a snooze-fest from 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. Practice was the only thing that changed, with us being able to play soccer freely, everyone else practiced as hard as Taiso, and with that, I actually had to try to not fall incredibly behind. With the fact that soccer was no longer managed, Taiso was truly trying to get us ready for next year's Holy Road. It's a year away, for crying out loud!

It was way worse for me. After evening practice was done and everyone was going home, there was a tug on the back of my shirt collar as Taiso dragged me back on the field. After everyone went home, he made me go through "special practice" with him. He was still a bit peeved that he still couldn't produce a keshin of his own and his brilliant idea was the best way to get one was to face one. So, that left two options: Archeri and I. You can guess which option he chose. So, he brought me to that same field we found over the weekend and forced me to have to bring out my keshin and take him head on several times. I have to admit, at first it was a little fun since I got my revenge for him for forcing me to do this extra practice. However, bringing out a keshin is not the easiest thing to do in the world and after a short while, I was beyond exhausted. Let's not forget, after this I still had to get home and get forced to do my homework by the same maniac who put me through this process. This continued every single day afterschool. However, the worst of it was yet to come.

It was a typical Thursday, except I finally got to skip Taiso's "special training." I have no idea why he didn't make us do it that day, but I'm not one to complain about a good thing. Later, as I tried to ignore my homework, Taiso helped me through it and made sure I finished it all for once. I wondered if there was a reason he was sparing me of another day of torture, but I decided he was just being nice for once. I guess I should be a bit grateful to him; I probably would have failed several times if he hadn't helped me. Afterward, we went to his place to watch TV and I realized what my replacement for the "special training" was.

That night there was a big special on Raimon again, with a special on their main players and their supposed "3 secrets" to victory. In short, publicity campaign of sorts. So, my training for today wasn't physical, but mentally. I'm really debating whether releasing my keshin repeatedly was really so bad if the alternative was this. I wasn't paying attention to the boring program while Taiso was glued in awe the entire time. There were barely any appearances by the players of the actual team. The only one player that was shown was the nervous train wreck of a Captain they had, whose interview was atrocious. Throughout his extended 2 minute interview, he froze and was unable to give more than a couple actual sentences. Talk about stage presence. It didn't help to inspire me in any way.

With the greatest interview ever taken finished, the special was over. While I slouched backwards in boredom, Taiso remained glued onto the screen for the commercial that followed. As the commercial continued and the details were slowly revealed, my face went from one of boredom to one of horror. I shot up and looked at Taiso, who looked like a five-year old on Christmas morning who was opening their presents.

"No, Taiso," I began. "Don't even think about it. No, no, no, no, NO!"

With an evil smile on his face, he said, "Don't worry Tai, I'm not that crazy. Calm down."

When Taiso says 'calm down,' you know either it's the apocalypse or something close to it. We weren't dead, so I assumed it was close to it. As I went back home and went to sleep, I expected the worst to come Friday morning.

Friday began like every other day that week, with Taiso dragging me out of bed, the apartment building, and all the way to school. However, in the few minutes where I was actually awake throughout this period, I noticed a few changes in the normal routine. First, we both skipped meeting with the team before school and while I headed for the classroom, Taiso went somewhere for some reason he wouldn't explain. I was too tired to care about what reason this was, so I left it at that. The same thing happened at lunch, when he left to go to the main office for some official soccer club business or something. Finally, he was late to practice which was the biggest shocker of all.

When he did make it to practice, he was the happiest I've ever seen him. This can't be good.

"Hey, everyone!" he called. "Gather around! I got great news for you all!"

Everyone walked over as he got one of those plastic crates for holding the balls and stood atop it like he usually did forming a pedestal of sorts. Oh, great, speech time.

"Now who here also watched the amazing Raimon special last night?"

I looked around to see if anyone else raised their hand as I reluctantly did so. Yep, no one. Not even Archeri, who lives with our crazed Captain.

"Well, if you did, you would probably have an idea of what I'm about to tell you. I'm about to tell you of an amazing revelation that was shown right after the special."

He didn't. He did. Oh shit. I flashbacked to the dreadful commercial we watched last night after the special as Taiso explained the story to the team.

_While I slouched backwards in boredom, Taiso remained glued onto the screen for the commercial that followed. I quickly realized the familiar voice of Kakuma Oushou. Wait, there wasn't a match playing, so why was he there?_

"_Raimon has become the new champion of youth soccer! Do you want to play them?"_

_Taiso nodded at the TV as if he was having a one to one conversation with Kakuma Oushou. _

"_Well, you can! Just set up a friendly with your schools!"_

_No shit, Sherlock._

"_But, Captain Matsukaze Tenma shall be traveling across Japan for 3 months as part of soccer education program in a month's time. By the time your school will get a match set up, you won't be able to face Raimon at their best!"_

_Taiso still sat in front of the TV, bummed out by the news._

"_However, in order to give our champions the best match ever, there will be a tournament to see who will play Raimon in Captain Matsukaze's sendoff game! This tournament will be known as Raimon Road! All schools are applicable; just send your application along with the entry fee to the address below! Raimon Road begins in one week! Who will get the honor of being Raimon's first opponent after their crowning of strongest in Japan?_

_I shot up and looked at Taiso, who looked like a five-year old on Christmas morning who was opening their presents._

"_No, Taiso," I began. "Don't even think about it. No, no, no, no, NO!"_

"…and so, I have signed up the Hikari Eleven to participate in Raimon Road. It starts in a week everyone!" was the joyful reply of our Captain.

"Can we really beat any of the teams out there?" was the reply from Yasashi.

"I thought it'd be possible if we trained until next year's Holy Road, but in a week's time? Impossible." Arashi answered him.

"We'll probably kicked out in the first round," Tetsu joined in.

For once, Taiso's speech didn't send inspiration throughout our team. Instead doubt and confusion was the reaction he got. Within seconds the entire team except for Archeri and me were all talking about our impending doom. Don't get me wrong, I thought we were screwed too, but there's no point in stating the obvious. As the panicking got more hysterical, I saw Taiso trying to calm them down, but nothing would stop the madness.

"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP?!" was the shrill exclamation from our ace striker and Captain Taiso's sister.

With that yell, everyone stopped talking and got into order as if they were an army squadron. Damn, Archeri's got some power over these guys. As Taiso's unofficial right-hand man, I remained on the right side of his crate pedestal while Archeri took the left.

"Okay, little bro, they're all yours," Archeri said with a smile.

Taiso was taken aback by his sister's help in the situation before turning back to the team and taking a deep breath to focus and decide what he should say to quell and reassure the guys (and girl) that we stood a chance.

"Yes, I realize that we are a weak team," he began.

Great start.

"Until now, we haven't truly been able to play to our full potential because all of our games had score orders from Fifth Sector," Taiso continued. "However, with Fifth Sector abolished, we can all unify as one and get stronger. Raimon didn't start as the champions they are now. They trained, persevered, and followed their own path all the way to the top and became heroes to everyone who loves soccer."

Heroes? Really? I don't know about that, but eh, at least this speech is going somewhere.

Now it's our turn. We can follow our own path and become heroes in our own right. We'll come from behind and follow in Raimon's footsteps and follow the Path of Heroes all the way to the top!"

Nice inclusion of the title.

"Together, as a team, we can reach the championship of the Raimon Road and get the chance to play against our heroes!" Taiso was finally picking up steam as everyone was lifting their heads and getting pumped up. "NOW WHO'S WITH ME?" Taiso screamed, raising his fist in the air, ending his pep talk.

"YEAH!" was the reply that came from everyone.

NOW LET'S GET TRAINING!"

Everyone ran back on the field with newfound conviction and practiced as hard as they ever have, with hope of winning the Raimon Road.

"Not bad man," I told Taiso as he was getting down from his podium. "You even got me thinking we might have a tiny chance of not losing in the first round."

He ignored my comment and dragged me onto the field, saying, "You're not excluded from this. Come on, if we don't want to get left in the dust, we got to train as hard as everyone else, if not harder!" Why me?

Practice went on for several hours longer than usual. Everyone went at full throttle until they fell from exhaustion and then got up again and continued. It was a couple hours after dusk when Taiso officially ended practice for the day. I was relieved to finally get a break until a tug on the back of my collar gave me a grim reminder. I turned around and got a look from Taiso that said, 'Oh, we're not done yet.'

As everyone else finally went home, Taiso brought me to the same field we had trained at the past week. Is he making this our new official training ground or something? I remember us finding it on a whim as we were deciding how to spend a Saturday afternoon. We really didn't think much of it, or maybe that was just me. Over the course of a week, Taiso has been coming here daily, dragging me with him, and practically making it our own training ground.

So, the daily after practice training session began. I brought out my keshin and clashed against my friend. I do have to admit this practice made drawing out my keshin in rapid succession easier each time, but it always left me completely drained. Taiso was exhausted afterward too, but he wasn't the one who needed help walking home afterward. This training was much rougher on me than it was on him, and this was to help him. I'm totally getting screwed over here.

Taiso didn't show any signs of improvement in the "awakening a keshin" factor, but he was getting better at the "facing a keshin" factor. He started taking less damage every time we clashed, and every now and then, he would be able to make it past me. However, awakening his keshin still was a fruitless endeavor.

After about an hour, we were still at it. I think I had one more burst, and then I would be done. Taiso had also taken some serious damage from the continuous collisions and was just as tired.

"One more time!" he yelled we ran at each other at our top speed with me releasing my keshin.

"Seishin Dejitaru X!" I screamed as the X-bearing demon appeared out of the purple flames that arose out of my back.

As we got closer and closer, I noticed something happening behind Taiso. Similar purple flames were starting to emerge from his back! They didn't grow much, and our collision literally extinguished any further chances of growth.

So we finally made some progress. I was about to tell him the good news before I stopped myself. Thank the gods I did. Normally, telling someone this kind of progress was made after an extremely long day would make them satisfied. However, this wasn't any normal person, this was Hyōshōdai Taiso. News of progress would only re-spark his energy and make him keep me up here all night. Yes, I want him to get a keshin so we can get this over with, but I also want to live to see the day when it happens. Therefore, I decided to keep the news of his keshin on the verge of awakening a secret.

"I can't go anymore," I groaned, sprawling out on the floor to exaggerate my exhaustion to the point that would make him finally stop.

"Come on, you wimp," he panted. "Hit me one more time." He collapsed on his knees after that last sentence.

"Shut…up…" I breathed out slowly. "You have no freaking idea how much this takes out of you."

Before Taiso could make his next comeback, his cell phone started ringing. Finally, someone came to save me. If he won't listen to logic, maybe he'll listen to either his or my parents. Unfortunately for me, the person on the other line wasn't one of our folks. As he started talking, he started smiling before asking questions before saying things like "Really?" and "Who?" before finally saying, "Alright, I'll tell 'em."

"Who the hell was that?" I asked, ruling out my Mom saving me from this mess by wondering why I wasn't home yet. I guess I spend so much time with Taiso she already knows the drill by now.

"Coach," said a smiling Taiso. His eyes had a rekindled fire of determination in them.

"Coach Useless?" I asked, remembering our excuse for a coach. "What the hell did he do?"

"He set up a friendly game for us tomorrow afternoon," he said simply.

"TOMORROW?!" I exclaimed, forgetting my fatigue for a second. "When was this decided?"

"I've been working with Coach all week to set up a friendly game all week long," he explained. "Why did you think I was late to practice this afternoon? There was more than just signing up for Raimon Road going on."

"B-but, why?!" I whined in pain.

"Well, if we're going to play in Raimon Road, we got to get used to playing some games again," he said. "Besides," he continued in a more excited tone, "I'm sure everyone is as excited as I am to play real soccer again."

"Everyone?" I asked. They knew about this, and they didn't tell me. Those traitors!

"Yeah, I told them today during practice. Coach just found out who we're up against."

"All right," I gave in to my curiosity. "I'll bite, who are we playing?"

He gave me a big smile and said, "Our opponent will be…"

**BAM! Cliffhanger! This chapter took me a while to write, but not as long as last time. Now the plot is truly picking up! Raimon Road is just around the corner but before that, the Hikari Eleven have a trial to pass to see if they truly have the strength to even consider the tournament. Who will their opponent in this friendly be? Well, the thing is… I'm letting YOU DECIDE! I'm going to put up a poll on the Bio section of my page. I'm giving you 3 options to choose from:**

**Tengawara**

**Mannouzaka**

**Teikoku**

**Sound familiar? It's Raimon's first 3 opponents from the Holy Road tournament! I'll leave the poll up for about 2 weeks before I tally up the votes and make a choice!**

**In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much I did writing it. As always I'll ask if you can Read and Review! Taiso's POV returns in Chapter 5: My True Rival.**

'**Til Next Time,**

**MateiFire**

**P.S. I'll add a couple new Pics along with some colored in ones for this chapter. Along with Tai, I'll put in #1 and #2: Shizen and Chryde!**


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